What is the legal effect of a fixed term employment agreement which contains a right to terminate earlier? Here is the answer.
“[19] The Territory also drew my attention to the decision of the Full Court of the Federal
Court in Alouani-Roby v National Rugby League Limited [2024] FCAFC 161 in which the court
observed:
[50] …At least for present purposes, a contract of employment that is expressed to
terminate upon the expiry of a nominated term is a contract for a specified period of
time; and it is no less so merely because it reserves for the parties other modes of earlier
termination.
…
[52] …[A] contract that is expressed, whether subject to other rights or not, to run for
a nominated term is, for the purposes of section 386(2)(a) of the FW Act, a contract for
a specified period; and remains as much notwithstanding that it might lawfully be
brought to end otherwise than by (which is to say before) the expiry of that period. …”
Ian Greig v ACT [2026] FWC 1595 delivered 4 May 2026 per Sloan C