Airline loses lawsuit against pilot who moved to El Al
An airline demanded a refund for the expensive training of a pilot who joined a competitor, but the court ruled against the company and ordered it to pay 10,000 shekels in legal costs.
Drama in the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court: A lawsuit filed by CAL Cargo Air Lines against pilot Vitaly Gardus, who left for El Al after less than a year and a half, has been rejected in its entirety.
The company demanded a significant financial refund for a comprehensive training course that lasted five and a half months and included simulator training and training abroad. However, Judge Michal Naim-Dibner determined that despite the significant resources invested, the company failed to ensure that the pilot signed a financial commitment document as required.
During the trial, it emerged that management attempted to rely on a general clause in the collective agreement, but the court ruled that without a specific personal signature, no valid legal obligation was created. The judge emphasized in her ruling:
"Knowledge is not the same as a commitment."
It was noted that even the company's own lawyers warned management in real-time that this was a "very important" step. Furthermore, it was discovered that when the pilot was asked to sign at the end of the training, he refused, yet the company continued his employment without insisting on the signature.
At the same time, the court also rejected a counterclaim filed by the pilot, who sought salary differentials, claiming his training was unnecessarily prolonged. The judge determined that the salary paid was accurate and that the pilot had simply confused gross and net figures. Ultimately, both lawsuits were rejected, but because the company initiated the complex legal proceeding, the court ordered it to bear legal costs of 10,000 shekels in favor of the pilot.
