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A Fair Work Commission full bench has clarified when the end of a fixed-term contract might constitute a dismissal, finding that a conditional "promise" of ongoing employment wasn't a contractually binding offer.

In doing so, it confirmed a precedent established in the full Federal Court's December 2024 decision, Alouani-Roby v National Rugby League, which was cited in two FWC decisions handed down in April this year.

In the first case, the Commission accepted that where a contract of employment expired, "this brings both the contract and the employment relationship to an end and what an employee expects to occur at the expiry of his/her contract is irrelevant" (read HR Daily's summary of the decision here). This overrode the precedent set in the 2017 Navitas decision.

The second decision was "somewhat at odds" with the first, HR Daily reported at the time...