Senior Anglophone pilot drags Camair-Co to court

A senior Anglophone pilot, Captain Joseph Ngyeh Engeh, has dragged the Cameroon Airlines Corporation, Camair-Co, to the Fako High Court in Buea for illegal and wrongful termination of employment contract and for gross injustice exhibited against him by Camair-Co management.

Barrister Francis Bache, who filed the matter at the Fako High Court (HC/L002/2015) on behalf of his client, told The Post on January 22, 2016, that the law permits Engeh to take the matter either to a court in Douala where he works or in Buea where he is resident.

Captain Engeh is also backed in the matter by the Confederation of Cameroon Trade Unions, CCTU, and some of its affiliates.

Remarkable Professional Career

Captain Engeh’s story, as gathered by The Post, is very pathetic. Engeh, who is a father of four and hails from Njah-Etu in Momo Division of the Northwest Region, has had an outstanding professional career as a pilot.

According to a work certificate signed on May 31, 2008, by the Liquidator of Cameroon Airlines, CAMAIR, Emile C. Bekolo, following the closure of the State carrier, Joseph Engeh served as a pilot with CAMAIR for 31 years.

Engeh served as the pilot (co-pilot) of Boeing 737, Boeing 707 and Boeing 747 respectively from August 8, 1977 to June 2, 1984. He was promoted to Captain and first served as Captain of Boeing 737 from June 3, 1984, to February 2, 1992.

Following further training and excellent performance at work, Engeh was promoted to serve as Captain of one of the biggest planes in the world, Boeing 747, which was also the biggest aircraft in CAMAIR’s fleet. He served as Captain of Boeing 747 (COMBI) from March 2, 1992, to May 9, 2001.

In 1995, Engeh was the Captain of the Boeing 747 that transported President Biya and members of his delegation that included HRH Fon Angwafor of Mankon and the Paramount Chief of the Bakweries, late HRH SML Endeley to Oakland, New Zealand, for Cameroon’s first attendance of the Commonwealth Summit.

Engeh ceased to become Captain of the 747 in 2001 as CAMAIR no longer had the plane in its fleet. He, however, became Captain of the then biggest plane in CAMAIR’s fleet, which was the Boeing 767, from May 10, 2001, to May 31, 2008, when CAMAIR was closed.

Engeh also simultaneously served as Chief of Sector of Boeing 767 from March 17, 2004, to October 13, 2005, as Type Rating Instructor, TRI, of Boeing 767 from October 14, 2005, to October 7, 2007, and as Type Rating Examiner, TRE, from October 8, 2007 to May 31, 2008 when CAMAIR closed.

When CAMAIR closed for liquidation, Ethiopian Airways offered Captain Engeh a job, but because of his deep patriotism, he did not take the offer, for the Government had told pilots of the defunct CAMAIR whose services it would soon need to operate the new national carrier.

Job Offer By Camair-Co

Meanwhile, Engeh applied for a job at the new national carrier, Camair-Co, which only started flying on March 28, 2011. On June 8, 2011, Engeh signed a six-page Contract Of Employment with Camair-Co. The then General Manager of Camair-Co, Alex Van Elk, signed for the company.

Engeh had hesitated to sign the contract because he was told by Camair-Co’s management that there was no space on the lone Boeing 767 (The Dja) in the fleet of the company. He was, however, advised to start with the small Boeing 737 where there was space.

Management, especially the pioneer Deputy General Manager, Emmanuel Mbozo’o Ndo, a pilot and who was Engeh’s junior colleague at CAMAIR, assured him that there would soon be space on the Boeing 767. Engeh was given the assurance that he would return to the 767 as soon as there was space or move to Boeing 777 that Camair-Co was hoping to acquire then.

Protest Against Injustice

As is the tradition in the airline sector, Engeh was sent to Amsterdam for the B737 Type Rating Course. But he was shocked when, upon his return at the end of the course, he learnt that Camair-Co's management which had said there was no space on the airline’s Boeing 767 had offered space to a junior colleague. Boiling with indignation, Engeh addressed a correspondence dated December 9, 2011, to the General Manager of Camair-Co, titled: ‘My Downgrading To The B737’.

In the correspondence, Engeh first recalled that he served CAMAIR in various flight deck capacities for over 31 years, totalling 14,765 hours of quality flight hours with 11,100 command hours – all of these well above what is required for recruitment by Camair-Co.

“I served Cameroon Airlines with diligence and dedication, and I never received a query during my service time. Most of the pilots on the B767 today at Camair-Co were my First Officers on the various planes, the rest my juniors professionally. My application to join Camair-Co team was as Training Capt B767 or Capt B767”.

Captain Engeh recalled how he was told by Camair-Co management that there was no space on the Boeing 767, but was given assurance that he would return to the Boeing 767 as soon as there was space. But he said he received the shock of his life when he learnt that another person, worst still “a junior crew to me”, was sent for the Boeing 767 Type Rating Course at Brussels.

“I felt betrayed, deceived, cheated and, above all frustrated. It was too much for me to bear. I sincerely believe there is outright injustice in the treatment I am being given by Camair-Co’s management,” says Engeh.

Illegal Termination Of Contract

Another shock hit Captain Engeh when the response he received from the General Manager of Camair-Co, Van Elk on the advice of the then ‘powerful’ Legal Counsel/Company Secretary of the airline company, Francis Ikome, arrived in a letter titled ‘Termination Of Your Contract Of Employment’.

“We write to inform you that as from date of signature of this letter, your employment with Cameroon Airlines Corporation Is terminated”, was the opening sentence of the correspondence dated January 10, 2012.

Camair-Co management had falsely accused Captain Engeh of abandoning the refresher course. Captain Engeh and his Douala-based legal counsel, Barrister Etah Akoh of ETAH-NAN & Co (Law firm) filed a complaint for wrongful termination of employment contract and injustice, to the Littoral Regional Delegate of Labour and Social Security.

The Labour Inspectorate summoned the concerned parties. At the different meetings, Engeh and his lawyer argued that the General Manager of Camair-Co was incompetent to terminate his contract with the company.

They cited Law No 99/016 of December 1999 on the general statute of state owned companies as well as the Statute of the Cameroon Airlines Corporation, in which it is clearly stated that the work contract of a senior employee of the company, that is from category 10 upwards, cannot be terminated by the General Manager. Rather, it is the Board of Directors that has the competence to take such a decision.

Last year, for example, the current General Manager of Camair-Co, Jean-Paul Nana Sandjo, had to seek authorisation from the Board of Directors that held an extra-ordinary meeting on the issue on July 3, to dismiss the Director of Exploitation, Belo Dicko Mohaman, who was accused of having committed a serious fault against the interest of the company.

Also, when the General Manager last year tried to sack another senior employee, Jopel Ngoua Elembe, without authorisation from the Board, Elembe stood his grounds on the fact that the General Manager did not have the power to sack him.

Meanwhile, the Labour Inspectorate in Douala recognized the fact that according to the law, the General Manager of Camair-Co did not have the powers to terminate Engeh’s contract and recommended that the two parties should take the matter to Camair-Co Board of Directors.

Philemon Yang Silent

The Confederation of Cameroon Trade Unions, CCTU, on April 30, 2013, addressed a four-page correspondence to Prime Minister Philemon Yang, in his capacity then as Board Chairman of Camair-Co. The correspondence signed by the President of CCTU, Jean Marie Amougou Zambou, had as subject: The Affair of Captain/Instructor Engeh Ngyeh Joseph.

In the correspondence, CCTU denounced the “illegal, abusive, reckless, degrading, unjust, disrespectful, malicious and absolutely unacceptable” termination of the employment contract of Captain Engeh by the management of Camair-Co.

The Confederation said the decision was loaded with irregularities and vices of different forms. “In all reputable airline companies in the world, pilots are classified according to their grades and seniority is highly respected by management and the pilots themselves,” CCTU stated and insisted on nothing short of the reintegration of Captain Engeh at Camair-Co and the payment of all his dues.

Engeh’s legal counsel, Barrister Etah Akoh, also addressed a correspondence dated April 8, 2013, to the Board Chairman of Camair-Co, denouncing the illegal and abusive decision to terminate Engeh’s work contract.

Unfortunately, the Prime Minister Yang remained silent on the matter and did not react to any of the correspondences until he was replaced as Board Chairman of Camair-Co in the second half of the year by Edouard Akame Mfoumou, former Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence.

Frederick Mboto Edimo was also appointed General Manager of Camair-Co. By then, the former legal adviser, Francis Ikome, who advised Van Elk to terminate Captain Engeh’s contract, was the Director of General Administration.

Akame Mfoumou Reacts Positively

On November 11, 2013, Engeh addressed a correspondence to the new General Manager of Camair-Co, briefing him on his ordeal, and asking for his reintegration into the company.

Engeh also in that same November presented a file on his matter to the new Board Chairman of Camair-Co in Yaounde. After examining the matter, the Board Chairman concluded that the termination of Engeh’s work contract was wrong and unfair.

Akame Mfoumou then addressed a correspondence to the General Manager of Camiar-Co, demanding that Engeh be reintegrated and should as well be treated fairly.

The Board Chairman, who gave the letter to Engeh, asked him to hand the mail to the then Director of Human Resources at Camair-Co, Mrs Mfout, for onward transmission to the General Manager. But for three months later, nothing happened.

In March 2014, Captain Engeh accompanied by a number of trade union leaders again met the Board Chairman of Camair-Co in Yaounde. Akame Mfoumou was surprised that the management of Camair-Co had not yet reintegrated Engeh.

When he called Mrs Mfout, she disclosed that she instead gave the correspondence to Francis Ikome. When contacted by the Board Chairman, Ikome admitted taking the letter, but could not explain why he did not give it to the General Manager.

Intrigues By Management

Following the intervention of the Board Chairman, the General Manager of Camair-Co, Mbotto Edimo, addressed a correspondence to Joseph Engeh, dated May 21, 2014, offering him an employment opportunity as Captain on the airline’s Boeing 767. Again, the correspondence was reportedly written in line with advice from the Director of General Administration, Francis Ikome.

But then, Engeh had not sent in any application for a job. Rather, he had clearly been asking for his reintegration and the payment of all his dues, which included the accumulated salaries owed him since his job contract was wrongfully terminated.

Engeh and the trade union leaders observed that Camair-Co management is trying to play intrigues to recruit him anew rather than reintegrate him so as to avoid paying his accumulated dues. Engeh and the trade unions rejected the job offer. A month later (June 2014), President Biya sacked Mbotto Edimo as General Manager of Camair-Co and replaced him with Jean-Paul Nana Sandjo.

On August 6, 2014, Nana Sandjo chaired a meeting at his office on the Captain Engeh Affair. Participants at the meeting included the President of the syndicate of workers of air transport, Eyango Njong, Captain Engeh, and Camair-Co’s Director of General Administration, Francis Ikome.

According to a two-page statement (‘proces verbal’) of the meeting that was prepared by the trade union of workers of air transport, it was agreed by the different parties that Engeh be reintegrated into Camair-Co as Captain of Boeing 767. As for the demand for the payment of Engeh’s accumulated salaries and other dues, since January 2012, the General Manager promised to present the matter to the Board of Directors for a final decision.

But in another complaint that was written by Captain Engeh, he fumed that he was once more embarrassed by the Director of General Administration when he went to his office the next day (August 7) to sign documents for the resumption of service. He said Ikome instead insisted that he should sign but the so-called new employment contract that he was offered in May by the former General Manager.

Engeh once more refused to sign the contract, arguing that it was not what they agreed on at the meeting the previous day. But when Ikome stood his ground, Engeh left.

Today, Ikome is floating at Camair-Co as ‘Adviser’, having been kicked out from the post of Director of General Administration by the current General Manager. Presently, Camair-Co has only one Anglophone pilot, Sylvester Ngwanyia.

Non Conciliation

In the face of persistent intriguers by the management of Camair-Co to reintegrate Captain Engeh and pay his outstanding dues, the Labour Inspectorate in Douala finally issued a certificate of Non Conciliation on the matter, permitting him to take the matter to court.

Engeh’s counsel, Barrister Bache, told The Post on January 22, 2016, that he realised that the financial claims Engeh was demanding from Camair-Co were not updated in the Non-Conciliation document that the Labour Inspectorate issued.

After filing the matter at the Fako High Court, Barrister Bache filed a motion praying the court to demand that the Labour Inspectorate in Douala do certain amendments in the Non-Conciliation. Bache said the parties concerned will meet at the Labour Inspectorate in Douala on February 3, 2016, to sign the amended Non-Conciliation.