Three contract extensions and 44 projects later, the expiry date stopped meaning anything
A marketing agency maintained its designer's contract had simply expired. Australia's Fair Work Commission found a dismissal instead.
In a decision handed down on July 7, 2026, the Commission found that a designer at The Hero Corporation Pty Ltd had been dismissed, even though the agency maintained his fixed-term contract had simply reached its end date. The ruling applies the tighter fixed-term contract limits introduced by the Secure Jobs, Better Pay reforms, and it speaks directly to any HR team that relies on rolling short-term deals.
The designer started in April 2025 on a contract meant to last only weeks. The agency then extended it three times, carrying his employment through to late November 2025. In that time he worked on 44 projects for 24 clients.
The complication sits in the newer rules. Employers are generally limited to two consecutive fixed-term contracts, or two years, for the same role. Once an employer goes beyond that without an exception, the clause that ends the contract on a set date is treated as having no effect - which leaves the worker effectively ongoing.
The agency argued it met an exception for staff engaged to perform "only a distinct and identifiable task involving specialized skills." It described the designer's job as speculative pitch work - producing design assets, including AI-assisted image generation, to help convert unpaid pitches into paying clients.
The Commissioner disagreed. He accepted the designer was skilled, with qualifications in fine arts and advertising. But he read "specialized skills" to mean skills an employer genuinely needs for a task but does not already hold. A designer working across 44 projects for 24 clients, on work the agency itself said it "regularly undertakes," did not fit the picture of a single, distinct task. So the exception did not apply.
Once the expiry date lost its effect, the contract could not lapse on its own. That left the question of whether the employment had ended in a dismissal. The facts were agreed. A creative director phoned the worker on November 14 to say his employment would not continue. Staff were told at a Monday meeting that it was his final week. An all-staff email on Friday, November 28 confirmed his last day and thanked him for his contributions.
Viewed objectively, the Commissioner held, that sequence was likely to bring the employment to an end - a dismissal at the employer's initiative. Even if the agency believed the contract was simply expiring, that did not change the objective picture.
Importantly, the decision settles only a jurisdictional dispute. The Commission rejected the agency's argument that it had no power to hear the matter, and the general protections case now proceeds to a private conference. Nothing has yet been decided about whether the dismissal was unlawful.
The takeaway for HR is unglamorous but useful: track your contract renewals closely. After more than two consecutive fixed-term contracts for the same role, treating the arrangement as self-expiring can quietly become a dismissal - and a claim.
