Farrell, and Boembus, I want to make some point to you as well. Mostly I agree with both of you but I want to comment on your post.
"Any contractual grief you come across should not be a surprise to you... PPrune has been around long enough for you to read how it works over here".
Farrell, sorry, but no. What do you mean by "over here"? Foreigners should expect to be cheated in Oman? Expat pilots who came to Oman Air expected nothing more than that their contract should be honoured. The company should be bound to its contract, regardless the conditions. If redundancies are made, yes the expats will go first, and perhaps they should not expect differently (even if that does not happen in "the old world").
But as long as people are employed the company should not bend the rules and break the law to the disadvantage of one group of people and not the other. I believe you were one of the most experienced pilots in Oman Air before you joined the Omani CAA; and I also believe that you worked in "the old world" for many years. Then you are surely aware that rules are the rules and apply to everyone, whether that concerns contracts or compliance with regulations, unless you are in some micky mouse country. I think you expected the same from your past employers when you were an employee. If we don't do things the right way in Oman, we have no right to be proud and hold our heads up. Then we should be ashamed of our people and our airline for cheating people, foreign crew, and pilots, and passengers. Do you not agree?
Boembus, why are you insulting people. Yes, many of your points are true but there is no need to defend wrong behaviour from the airline. Whatever was given to expats was nothing more than what we promised to bring them here. Then we broke that promise. Of course it was the company's right to terminate them, and they will look for a brigher future else where, but why do the terminations in such a bad way and after illegally cutting their salary? What will these people say about us? Maybe you don't care and you are in your little bubble, but the company's reputation is already terrible because of doing things the wrong way! Just search for "airline review oman air" on google and see what you will find. Do you not think we should hold ourselves to a higher standard?