Foreman & Anor v KLM Royal DUTCH AIRLINES 2001 (1) ZLR 108 (H)

Mr LT Biti — administrative law, reasonable expectation doctrine — labour and employment. The applicant’s conditions of employment with eh respondent airline stated that they are eligible to apply for airline tickets at reduced rates but that the grant of such reduced travel benefit was a privilege to which they were not entitled as of right. the conditions also stated that i the applicants were refused the benefit they had to be informed of the reason for the decision. After the responded had refused their applications for a reduced travel benefit without informing them of the reasons the applicants applied to the hight court for an order declaring the refusal unlawful and obliging the respondent to grant them the benefit on demand. they contended that because they had never been refused the benefit before, it had become a right; alternatively that they had a legitimate expectation that it would not be refused; and that they should have been allowed to make representations before the respondent took the decision to refuse them that benefit.

held, that although the applicants had previously been granted the benefit whenever they applied for it, this did not convert it from a privilege into a right; nor did the obligation to give reasons for a refusal take away the respondents discretion to refuse or grant the benefit. If past practice and the respondents obligation to give reasons for a refuels had created an expectation in the applicants minds that the privilege had become a right the expectation was not a legitimate one.

held further that the respondents failure to afford the applications a hearing before refusing them the benefit and its failure to inform the applicants of the reason for refusing them the benefit though unfair did not render the refusal void.