See Fair Work Act 2009 s.386
The term dismissed is defined in the Fair Work Act as a situation where:
A dismissal does NOT include where:
A person employed under a contract for a specified period of time, specified task or for the duration of a specified season and the employment comes to an end at the end of that period, could be considered to have been dismissed if a substantial purpose of the employment of the person under a contract of that kind was so that the employer could avoid their obligations under the unfair dismissal provisions of the Fair Work Act.[1]
Notification of dismissal should not be made by text message or other electronic communication. Unless there is some genuine apprehension of physical violence or geographical impediment, the message of dismissal should be conveyed face to face. To do otherwise is unnecessarily callous.
Even in circumstances where text message or other electronic communications are ordinarily used, the advice of termination of employment is a matter of such significance that basic human dignity requires that dismissal be conveyed personally with arrangements for the presence of a support person and documentary confirmation.[2]
[1] Fair Work Act s.386(3); see also Khayam v Navitas English Pty Ltd t/a Navitas English [2017] FWCFB 4092 (Ross J, Colman DP, Cirkovic C, 16 August 2017).
[2] Wallace v AFS Security 24/7 Pty Ltd [2019] FWC 4292 (Cambridge C, 28 June 2019) at para. 51; see also Cachia v Scobel Pty Ltd ATF the S & I Trust t/a Emerse Skin & Laser [2018] FWC 2648 (Sams DP, 21 May 2018) at para. 88.