“Respectfully, those observations are unimpeachable. The statutory purpose underpinning s 386(2)(a) of the FW Act is to exclude from protection for unfair dismissal those whose employment terminates by agreement—rather than by or in response to some unilateral act of an employer—upon the completion of an agreed (and specified) period, task or season. As the learned primary judge noted, exclusion in that sense accords with a reality of the common law, namely that “[a]s a matter of ordinary language, an employer does not terminate an employee’s employment when his or her term of employment expires”: Victoria v The Commonwealth (1996) 187 CLR 416, 520 (Brennan CJ, Toohey, Gaudron, McHugh and Gummow JJ).”
Alouani-Roby v National Rugby League Ltd [2024] FCAFC 161 delivered 12 December 2024 per Snaden, Meagher and Needham JJ