Legitimate Expectation in Termination of Employment: An Economic Perspective

Abstract

The concept of legitimate expectation or expectation interest has gained status in East African labour law jurisprudence. Knowing that an employer may terminate a contract of Employment by merely giving the requisite notice, Labour courts have adopted the public law concept of legitimate expectation as an exception to the at-will employment. Termination, usually when initiated by the employer, does not meet the reasonable expectations of the employee thus the need to revisit reasonable expectations in termination of employment through economics. This paper concludes that the public law concept of legitimate expectation as the glimmer of hope in contentious unfair terminations can increase resource (income) redistribution among the working class.

Keywords: Employment Law, Legitimate Expectation, Termination of Employment