Recently, the Court of Appeal reiterated in Touchstone Television Productions v Superior Court (2012), that not renewing an employee’s contract cannot be considered a wrongful termination. This is because, among other reasons, employment for a fixed period of time is terminated automatically at the time that contract expires. Thus, the fact that the employer decided not to renew the contract is not an “adverse employment action” – nothing is taken away from the employee, but that employee is simply not provided with the new / additional of being employed longer. The Court further stated that even if one of the reasons for not renewing the contract was the fact that the plaintiff, for instance, complained about unsafe working conditions does not change the fact that she was actually not terminated, and thus no wrongful termination claim can be made. This, of course, would not play out the same way, if the employee was promised to have his contract renewed in so many ways.
Plaintiff could still sue for damages for discrimination and retaliation, if there is evidence that the reason or one of the reasons that the contract was not renewed was being treated different due to disability, filing a workers comp claim or harassment complaint, complaining about safety violations at work, demanding to be paid overtime, and engage in any other protected activity within the meaning of the law.