The respondent was recruited from Bombay to work on the appellants’ farm in Zambia on a three-year contract. When the respondent’s contract expired, the appellant paid him all his terminal benefits and promised to provide him with air fare tickets to Bombay with his family. The respondent did not travel to Bombay but obtained another job with another company in Zambia. When he heard that the appellants had withdrawn their earlier instructions to a travel agency to issue him with air fares for him and his family, the respondent for the sum of K22, 437.60 representing the cost of economy air fares from Lusaka, Zambia, to Bombay, India and the High Court allowed his claim. The appellants appealed.
Held:
(i) It would not be realistic or fair to expect the employer to pay passages at the going rate for a claimant who, because of his own default, delays his departure for an inordinate period.
