Why "employment ends after each shift" did not save this national sporting body

Two tennis officials lost their memberships. Tennis Australia said no one was sacked. The Commission disagreed.

Tennis Australia thought it had a clean argument. After it cancelled the Officiating Membership of two officials on Oct. 7, 2025, both filed dismissal claims. The body's reply was simple: you can't be dismissed if you were never really employed past each tournament.

In a decision handed down on June 5, 2026, the Fair Work Commission didn't buy it.

The two officials, Simon Cannavan and Karen Mak, had worked the Australian Open and other events as casuals. Tennis Australia argued they were engaged one tournament at a time, each contract ending when the event finished. On that reasoning, the relationship had lapsed back in January 2025 - making the October claims badly out of time - or it had simply expired because the contracts ran for a specified period, task or season under section 386(2)(a) of the Fair Work Act.

The officials told a different story. They said the real relationship ran all year, held together by an "umbrella" contract: the Officiating Membership. It let them apply for shifts, kept them in uniform, and tied them to ongoing training, police checks, working-with-children checks and a minimum number of working days each year.

Commissioner Yilmaz looked past the paperwork to the "real substance, practical reality and true nature of the employment relationship" - the...

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