Discussions of extending fixed term employment agreement are not enough for extension …

A fixed term employee brought a claim for unjustified dismissal to the Employment Relations Authority after his employer gave him notice that his employment would end on the specified date in his fixed term agreement.

The employee was hired for a fixed term of one year, however the project he was to work on was estimated to take five years to complete. A few months before the fixed term was about to end, the employer wrote to the employee stating that his contract will be extended.

There was then a formal complaint made against the employee for some inappropriate comments he made to his coworkers. The employer subsequently wrote to the employee stating that his employment would end as per the original fixed term, and set out how the employee would be managed in his remaining weeks on the job.

Upon receiving the notice, the employee wrote to the employer requesting that the employment not be terminated under the fixed term agreement. The employer rejected the request and terminated the employment on the expiry date of the fixed term.

The employee argued that there should have been an extension of the employment due to the earlier offer of extension put forward by the employer.

However, the Authority stated that the email from the employer indicating the extension was not enough for it to be effective. There were further steps that needed to be taken for an actual extension including the length of the extension and the hours of work. These specific terms would need to be formally put forward to the employee by the employer, and the employee would have to accept the terms before the end of the fixed term. This did not occur.

The Authority concluded that the employment ended in accordance with the fixed term agreement and the employee was not unjustifiably dismissed.