What Ahmad Zahri v AIMS Cyberjaya Means For You
The case on when a repeatedly renewed contract is really permanent work.
What The Case Decided
Ahmad Zahri Mirza Abdul Hamid v AIMS Cyberjaya Sdn Bhd is a Federal Court decision from 2020. It is reported at [2020] 6 CLJ 557, and addresses fixed term contracts renewed repeatedly.
The court set out a structured way to test whether such a contract is genuine.
It identified three factors: the intention of the parties, the employer’s conduct during employment, and the nature of the business and the work 1. Successive renewal with no real break may mean the relationship is truly permanent.
What The Principle Means Plainly
A contract labelled fixed term is not automatically what it says it is.
If you were renewed year after year doing the same ongoing work, with no genuine gap or change in role, the substance may point to permanent employment.
That matters because letting a genuinely permanent role lapse at contract end can amount to a dismissal, not a natural expiry.
What It Means For A Worker
Look back at how many times your contract was renewed, whether the work was continuous, and whether your role changed at each renewal.
Evidence of ongoing, unbroken duties across renewals supports an argument that the fixed term label did not reflect reality.
Keep copies of every contract and renewal letter you were given, since the pattern across them is what the court examines.
Where This Fits In A Claim
This case is central to any fixed-term contract dispute and connects closely to broader unfair dismissal claims.
Your own outcome will always turn on the specific facts of your case, and no result here is promised.
The sixty day window to act under Section 20 still applies, so checking the deadline calculator early is worthwhile.
If your contract was renewed again and again before it ended, it helps to walk through the pattern with someone who can assess it against these three factors.
Common questions
What did Ahmad Zahri v AIMS Cyberjaya decide?
The Federal Court set three factors for a genuine fixed term contract: the intention of the parties, the employer's conduct during employment, and the nature of the business and the work. Repeated renewal with no real break may mean the role is truly permanent.
My contract was renewed several times and then not renewed, can I claim?
Possibly, if the pattern of renewals and how the role was actually run suggest the relationship was really permanent. Letting such a contract lapse can then be treated as a dismissal without just cause.
Does the title on my contract decide the outcome?
No, the label on the document is only one part of the picture. The court looks at the real intention, conduct and nature of the work over time.
Sources
- Three factors decide whether a fixed term contract is genuine: the intention of the parties, the employer's conduct during employment, and the nature of the business and the work, and successive renewal with no real break may mean the relationship is truly permanent. Lexology, genuine fixed term employment
Keep reading
If your contract was renewed again and again before it ended, it helps to walk through the pattern with someone who can assess it against these three factors.