Urgent - Oman Air
 

Admin, permission to post please.


I am under a lot of stress because of Oman Air, who has the most lousy HR department and think this is a good place to ask for advise.


They gave me a job offer and told me to join within 2 months. I resigned from my job and accepted to join them immediately. Now it's the 4th month and I was still waiting for security clearance to get visa for Oman. When I kept enquiring on what is taking so long, I got no response from Oman Air for very long and finally a response by email that Oman Air sent said they decided to "terminate my job offer". This is really unfair!! After waiting for so long and having no job for 4 months, this is the reply they give me? If I didn't have their job offer, I wouldn't have resigned from my previous job!!!!


Please advise how I can sue them. Thanks in advance.

RGuytz,

Couple of thoughts.......

1. Welcome to the middle east.
2. Do you have a proper employment contract in place? Even if you do, I would be surprised if it didn't have a suspensive clause that makes it subject to visa issue.
3. Even IF you have some legal grounds remember this....,..A contract is not worth the paper it is printed on unless you have the money to enforce it in a court of law.
4. You are right it is damn unfair. I always say that if life was fair, I would have a smaller c@#k and more money.
5. First rule of survival in the ME is to learn to pick your battles.

Good luck but I suspect you are better off directing your energy at finding a new job.

ktk.

Thank you both. I know I have a difficult situation.


I will still like to do something legally against Oman Air. They should not get away so easy because I will not be the last person they cheat if we all leave them. Other person in with me in assessment have also been refused same like me. I have asked them to join me together to go against them. If they did not want to keep us why did they make us spend money and go for assessment


Some lawyers said I should sue them in my country because they have office but 2 said I have to sue in Oman. It's very hard to believe anyone. If someone else can advise, please do, and if you have same situation we can join together to sue them.

RGuytz,

What I am about to say is my very own opinion.....hopefully someone else will tell you what you want to hear.

I understand your frustration but you are being naive.....civil litigation has nothing to do with sticking it to them. This is not some USA court room drama where they will hand you heaps of punitive damages. Civil litigation goes about proving what you lost and then reimbursing you for that loss. You will have to prove and quantify that loss. You will also be expected to mitigate the losses. I don't know you but here I have to make some assumptions(forgive me)......if you are going for Oman Air, chances are you gave up a position in a low cost carrier. I suspect wages are not overly generous. If they were to quantify your loss as 6 months wages, how much would that be? 20 000 euro?? You have to consider what the upside is vs what you are going to spend.

I am speaking as someone who has had the misfortune to be involved in 2 protracted legal battles. In the second battle, I got my arse handed to me on a platter......and I had a watertight contract/case. The other guy simply had more money than me. After spending a heap of cash, I had to walk away with nothing to show for it. If you feel bad now, imagine how you going to feel after being taken to the cleaners by their lawyers.

The first thing that Oman Air lawyers will do upon receipt of your founding affidavit will be to demand that you deposit a heap of cash into a trust account as security for costs. This is to cover their legal fees if you were to lose. Have you got 100 000 Euro to place on deposit for the next 5 years while you fight the case?

Let me talk about lawyers. I briefly dated one once. This happened to be as I was contemplating my first legal battle. I went to great lengths to explain my situation and ask her for an opinion. Her response was very telling indeed.....I quote..."It doesn't matter whether you have a case or not, I will fight tooth and nail for you because I have 2 kids to put through university". At least it was honest.

I think you would be better off hitting them through social media ie their facebook page or twitter. They are far more sensitive in that area.

Either way, I wish you luck and hope that it works out for you.

RGuytz

I will give you one very important advice.
If you don't have a good insurance which will cover the costs or a union taking care of it , DO NOT GO TO COURT.
I have seen several guys in Europe ( civilized country compare to Middle East ) going to court against their employers and it lasted years ( 5 to 8 years )
some won , some lost but the cost for all of them would have been very painful if they had to pay with their own money.
I am talking about 2 digits thousand of Euros.
So be very careful if you go on your own , YOU will still have to pay your lawyer and if you loose you may also have , in certain circumstances , to pay the cost of the others...

RGuytz,

another point, if you decide to sue them, don't do it in their home country. The law in the middle east is very special when it comes to "government entities".

strange that, most companies over here actually tell you when its ok to resign, meaning the security clearance and other formalities have been cleared...until that time, most tell you DONT RESIGN until...etc etc

Do they even have a HR Dept. I have applied and never heard anything from them but all the best and thanks for letting me wont be applying with them anymore.

Have you been to Oman for interview? Or is this offer on the strength of an assessment somewhere in Turkey etc?

Kennytheking has summed this up for you in his first reply.

You need to move on. There is no way you are suing Oman Air.

You had an employment offer at best; and you didn't sign a contract.

They have changed their mind, whether due to you being refused a visa, or a change in hiring requirements, or they found you to be bothersome with your emails. (I have a gut feeling it is the latter, as a wrong word here can finish you off before you've even started. Tact is key.)

As was said earlier, it's best for you to jog on and find a new job!

Farrell

Just forget it and walk away..you will achieve nothing by taking them to court, except sending yourself broke.

Excellent advice and opinions here. Adding weight rather than substance, take this on the chin and consider yourself saved. Imagine working for this lot ! Their Country, their rules and when it goes wrong you will discover what loneliness really is ! Good luck and let this jut guide you in the future.

Do not ever take on a fight unless you are absolutely positively and physically and mentally certain that you will win

OR

you are prepared to loose and prepared for all the consequences and ramifications emotionally, physically, financially and socially.

It doesnt matter if its a who spilled my pint conversation in the pub, a road rage incident, a talk with the wife, a chat with your boss without biscuits or an employer potential, former or current.

It doesnt matter and no one cares if you are correct in law or even morally. Money will often be the beginning and end. They will not play fair, they will ignore you until they legally cannot and try and make everything your fault. They will not care about the media attention and the government (ie the entity controlling the court system) will also be against you. They will threaten your career, your family and even your liberty.

Also bear in mind the law is written in Arabic and translated into English and you will likely find that your transalation and theirs are very very different.

How do I know? I have been there and tried. Sometimes I won, some I lost. It was never a factor of how strong your case was.

Personally the fact that you are getting different stories from lawyers in your home country should tell you something straight away. If the lawyers in your country cannot agree on jurisdiction and a way forward do you really think that this is a fight with any legs?

The poster above says go the route of social media thinking that it is blowing off steam. Actually it is a savvy legal mve in my experience and Ive used it!

Basically you do what is suggested, ie sustained and annoying media barrage then you need to be prepared for them to come back and threaten libel proceedings.

Oddly enough this works in your favour, you could be like hmm ok. Well everything i have said about you is true so if you want to go to court crack on it publicises my underlying case and maybe someone will pick it up as a pro bono once they sense they may get free publicity.meven better you will need to do that in my home country where the legal system actually has trust implicit in it.

Before you start though please be wary of my advice you have to be prepared to accept the consequences and they may be waaay more than you initially think. I.e it is not just a case it could cost you a relationship, a career or even your liberty if it goes wrong. You are playing with the big boys if you take these people on!

Good luck.
VT

@RGuytz

Speculating a bit. I heard 2-3 visa applications were rejected by the ministry. Maybe that's why they withdrew the employment offer. Every once in a while the ministry throws a spanner in the works by either denying or restricting the visas. With the current shortage of crew, I'll be surprised if they turn away pilots after the selection process is completed.

Here's wishing you get back in a 737 flight deck soon.

Regards.