Your automated offboarding may not be ending employment, FWC warns
An employer stopped rostering a casual worker, said nothing for 11 months, then confirmed his termination in an email about a locker.
That is the central fact of a Fair Work Commission decision handed down on February 23, 2026, and it asks a question worth sitting with: do the people you stop rostering actually know their employment has ended?
Alexander Burton started as a casual Customer Service Officer and Range Officer with SSAA Pty Ltd, trading as St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre, on April 13, 2022. He worked five to six days a week, often in shifts of more than 10 hours. After requesting a conversion from casual to full-time employment - a request that was refused - he was moved through different roles before working his final shift on November 27, 2024.
The next day, Burton arrived for work and found he was off the roster. His manager told him there was "other stuff" coming. He waited. Months passed. SSAA kept sending him general staff communications. He retained access to his staff lockers and continued living in a rental property connected to the company at a rifle range in Silverdale, NSW.
Internally, SSAA had already decided not to offer him any more shifts. It just never said so.
In July 2025, Burton's access to the Employment Hero rostering platform was quietly removed and an automated offboarding notice sent. Still, no one spoke to him directly.
The clearest communication came on October 21,...
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