Employee sues Civil Aviation

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday September 10, 2010 00:00

The applicant, who was a senior aviation security officer, has worked for the organisation for 10 years until recently when he was re-deployed to the Central Transport Organisation (CTO).

In the court papers filed before Justice Leatile Dambe, Pule says there was corruption in the appointment of some aviation security officers.  He says that CAAB acted unfairly against him since CAAB did not communicate with him as to why he was not appointed even though he was qualified and possesses the necessary skills for the job he had been doing for the past 10 years.

“The applicant had legitimate expectation to be appointed to the post of Senior Aviation Security Officer since he is qualified for the job,” he says in his papers.

He says CAAB should appoint him Senior Aviation Security Officer immediately and that the appointment should be backdated to August 1 2010.  He adds that CAAB should pay him P100,000 as damages for humiliation and stress they caused him during the process of trying to ascertain why he was not employed. 

The CAAB has not opposed the application.

According to Pule, when recruitment of Aviation Security Officers was made, there were people who were appointed though they did not possess any security related qualifications.

He said that he and two other officers were not appointed, but no reasons were given nor any reason given for appointment of people from other departments not related to security.

“The Human Resources Department only advised and encouraged me to tender my application again when they re-advertised the post.  They advertised the Aviation Security Officer and Senior Aviation Security Officer posts respectively and I applied for the latter post and I was invited for an interview,” he says in his affidavit.

He adds that he was not called for the vetting process and got suspicious when people who had not been enlisted for vetting were appointed to the positions.  He said that no explanation was given and concluded that there was something fishy about the goings-on at CAAB.

He accuses some people of using their positions to hire their friends and relatives at the expense of qualified people.  “The Respondent has failed to communicate with me as to why I was not appointed to the post of Senior Aviation Security Officer even though I am qualified, experienced and skilled for the job,” he said.  He demands an explanation.  The case will be heard this morning.