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An apprehended domestic violence order that prohibited an employee from contacting her manager "frustrated" her employment contract, the Fair Work Commission has ruled in concluding she wasn't dismissed.

Deputy President Tony Saunders noted the relevant test for determining if a contract had been frustrated was whether it had "become incapable of being performed because the circumstances in which performance is called for would render it a thing radically different from that which was undertaken by the contract".

And if a contract was frustrated, "it comes 'ipso facto to an end' – that is, without any action by the parties to terminate it", he said.

The Fire Stopping administrative assistant claimed unfair dismissal in March this year, but the employer objected on the basis it didn't sack her; rather, her employment ended due to the frustration of her contract...