The tribunal, held in Liverpool’s Civil Justice Centre, heard Ms Malik had asked when she would receive a modest sum of money her new bosses had wrongly deducted from her wages due a misunderstanding about tax – an issue that affected several members of staff at the café.
She said: “A couple of days later, they took me off the rota and I was like ‘what’s going on?’
“I’ve never not worked there, the whole nine years, I’ve been in every single week.
“So it was really strange, and I just started panicking and worrying, like it just came over me straight away.”
When Ms Malik questioned why she was not on the rota, she received a message on the work WhatsApp chat from Mr Paliga referring to her “resignation”, the tribunal heard.
When she said she had not resigned, she was told she would be given reasons for her termination in writing – which never arrived.
She said: “It was horrible, it was so scary because I just didn’t know what I was going to do.
“My heart just sank, it was really horrible.
“I didn’t know what to think – I didn’t know what to do.”
Ms Malik later told her story to a staff member at her local Citizen’s Advice Bureau, who told her “this is so bad” and helped her launch legal proceedings.