1. Mason Cynoma, a high-end home furnishings outlet had advertised for the position of a visual showroom merchandiser cum manager. Under the terms of the advertisement, the successful applicant was expected to "be a self-motivated entrepreneur who was tech savvy, had an eye for color, design and was up-to-date with global home furnishings trends. Successful execution was to be evidenced by creating dynamic visual displays on the Mason Cynoma showroom sales floors that generated interest from customers, seeing to a timely flow of product from back stock to sales floor and maintaining high standards for showroom floors at all times". ?Celine Chia, an experienced merchandiser previously with Cartons & Boxes, another luxury home furnishings retailer, applied for the job and was in due course selected. She accepted the job offer and the employment contract was concluded between the parties on 31 Dec 2015. Apart from the above description in the advertisement which was included in the terms of the contract, the terms of the contract also stipulated the following:
i. the successful applicant was to lead and complete the creation of new showroom floors on or by every 5th day of February, May, August and November;
ii. the successful applicant was required to attend a meeting with the store's General Manager and the other managers every 15th of January, April, July and October to brief them on the theme and progress for the impending change in showroom floors' design.
Celine started work on 4 Jan 2016 and quickly got into the swing of things and started planning the next design change for the showroom floors. On 14thof January 2016, Celine's best friend Whitney suffered from a bad bout of depression and Celine spent the night with her, trying to console and counsel her. As a result of Whitney's unstable condition, Celine forgot about her meeting with the General Manager on 15thJanuary 2016 and stayed with Whitney instead. She realized her oversight when she returned to work the next day. She quickly arranged and called for a meeting on 19thJanuary 2016.
At the meeting, Celine outlined the progress and explained the theme for the 5thFebruary floor design. However, Bobby Boon, the General Manager, was rather unhappy at the delay in the calling of the meeting. He also felt that Celine was not thorough in her presentation and had reservations about the impending showroom floors' design changes.
On the morning of 5thFebruary, Celine received a phone call from a depressive Whitney and rushed over to her house. She spent several hours with Whitney and finally left at 1pm. She hurried back to the office and started to co-ordinate the floor design change. However, due to the rush over the previous weeks, Celine had forgotten to order several items needed for the showroom floors' visual display. She quickly made changes to the design and the showroom floors were finally completed at 3pm on 6thFebruary.
Bobby Boon was furious and wanted to terminate Celine's contract.
Advise Bobby Boon as to whether he is able to do so in view of Celine's breach of the terms of her contract.
Discuss the LEGAL PRINCIPLESin relation to the above case study, APPLYthe legal principles and CONCLUDEon whether Celine Chia may be terminated.