Expectation of employment not on

The reasonable expectation for a further contract is something that is often present in fixed-term contract cases. The case of National Tertiary Education Union obo Prigge and another / Durban University of Technology - (2018)27 CCMA 7.1.21 also reported at [2018] 10 BALR 1062 (CCMA) deals with this principle.

Facts of the case:

● The employees were junior lecturers on fixed-term contracts in the video technology department until the university decided not to renew their final contracts.

● The employer concluded that the employees could not have reasonably expected further employment because they had been informed that their posts had been advertised and they lacked minimum requirement for full-time employment as lecturers.

● The legal questions before the commissioner for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration was whether the employees had a subjective expectation that their contracts would be renewed and, if so, whether that expectation was reasonable.

● The commissioner found that the employees had always known that they would not be appointed permanently until they acquired a masters degree.

● There was also a valid reason for concluding fixed-term contracts with the employees as an interim measure. The employees had, accordingly, failed to prove that they had been dismissed and that an unreasonable expectation had been created.

● The application was dismissed.