The claimant was employed by the company as a junior town planner on 1 August 1990. Vide para. 5 of his letter of appointment (Exhibit CLCI) he was placed on probation for 6 months. The claimant's probationary period would have expired on 31 January 1991.

By a letter dated 1 February 1991 (Exhibit CO3) which was received by the claimant on 30 March 1991 the claimant was informed that his probationary period had been extended by a period of 3 months commencing 1 February 1991. By another letter dated 1 May 1991 (Exhibit CL2) which was received by the claimant on 15 May 1991, the claimant was again informed that his probationary period was extended by a further period of 3 months commencing 1 May 1991.

By a letter dated 31 July 1991 (Exhibit CO6) the claimant was informed that the company was not confirming him in his appointment. Pursuant to cl. 5 of the letter of appointment, the company terminated the claimant's employment by giving him 2 weeks salary in lieu of notice. The claimant was further informed that he shall cease to be an employee of the company with effect from 1 August 1991.

The claimant contends that the termination of his employment was without just cause or excuse and seeks an order of reinstatement to his former position. The company, however, contended that the claimant's non-confirmation and termination was due to his unsatisfactory work performance.

Probation in the Concise Oxford Dictionary has been explained to mean "testing of conduct or character of person" and a "probationer" as meaning a "person on probation". Mr. Webster thinks the word is derived from Latin probatio (onis), a testing, from probare to prove, and means a period of time required to fit a specified place, as a novitiate or an apprentice" and a 'probationer' is one, who is on trial or in a state to give proof of certain qualifications for

a place or state." The idea of probation in all cases of the service contracts is, therefore, a testing of the character and capabilities of the servant on the employer's side and also a testing of the conditions of service on the employee's part. Period of probation in a service contract can, therefore, be taken as a communication by the employer that in case the employee himself, within the period of probation, to the satisfaction of the employer, that he, the probationer, is a fit and proper person to perform the duties for which he has offered his services, the probationer would be entitled to be confirmed or taken in on a permanent basis.

Except in the case of a termination which is so perverse that no reasonable employer would have come to such a decision, an industrial tribunal would in the ordinary course of the exercise of its statutory function of adjudicating upon the alleged wrongful termination of a probationer's service, concern itself with the question whether the employer had followed a fair procedure in the assessment of the suitability of a probationer for permanent employment. It is for the employer to satisfy the Court that he h