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Pilot sues his employer as court throws out case against him

The case goes back to March 2005, when Okakpo joined the cargo company — located in Sharjah — as a commercial pilot between the two countries (Bahrain and Iraq). The pilot stated that he had disputes with the cargo official, and this official started instigating the company against him, as the latter kept refusing all his demands, such as the one that triggered the crises between the pilot, his assistant, and the company’s management, where both the defendants demanded a special insurance for themselves because of the dangers surrounding the area of their work in Iraq. Unfortunately, the company rejected their demands and instructed them to settle for the normal scheme of insurance in normal cases, but they both declined the suggestion and refused to fly.

The stand of the defendants threatened the company’s obligations and business contracts with its partners, which prompted the manager of the company to contact them in an attempt to convince them to reconsider their stand of not reporting to work.

But they stood their ground, and so the manager invited them to his office on the evening of March 20th to discuss the matter and reach an agreement. The pilot and his assistant went to the manager’s office where they were asked by the secretary (Maria Victoria, 34, Filipina) to wait. During this waiting period, the pilot grabbed a book from the table and started flipping through the pages. At this point, the secretary yelled at him and asked him to put the book down. As she continued talking rudely, the defendants left the office without meeting the manager.

But they were shocked when the secretary filed a police case against them, claiming that they threatened to kill her and attempted to view the company’s confidential documents. When she was asked about the nature of these documents, she said that it was about the operation of the airplanes. The prosecution rejected the second charge against both the suspects, but accused the captain (pilot) of the first charge.

So, he was under detention in the Al Buhairah Police Station for 23 days until the court released him without bail, after it was discovered that the claims of the secretary were motivated by the instructions of the company management to bargain with the pilot for withdrawal of the case against him in exchange for his continuing to work with the company. At the same time, his wife and his dismissed assistant were contacted in attempts to reach a compromise with him for dropping the charges, but they both (the pilot and his assistant) rejected the offer and insisted on continuing to move the courts. And to top it all, the defendants filed a civil case demanding compensation for the damages, as the pilot was in detention for 23 unjustifiable days, in addition to not receiving legal dues.

The pilot demanded a temporary compensation of Dh10,000 while the defence lawyer (Nasir Hashim Al Kamaly) is completing the procedures for demanding compensation, which they estimated at $5,000,000. Nasir Hashim (defence) claimed that the secretary did not provide any witnesses to back up her allegations, and that she reported these malicious claims after being instructed by her manager to do so. The complainant (secretary) herself admitted that she was compelled to act the way she did on the instructions of her manager. That proved that the charges against the pilot were malicious.

What’s more, the Operations Manager at Heavy Left Co. — Moneya Ayat Bulgayed, a Moroccan — stated that she did not see the pilot trying to seize any documents, nor did she hear him threatening the plaintiff. The defence lawyer also wondered how a pilot would try to take documents on how to operate an airplane, especially since he is a reputed pilot who simply refused to travel to Iraq in the present dangerous circumstances. The court declared both the pilots not guilty of the charges against them. Meanwhile, Okakpo is carrying on the fight for his compensation.

• UAE