Huangpu District People's Court decided Monday to give a pilot one month to reconsider taking a job with a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines after the company sued him for breaking his pilot trainee contract.
The defendant, Wang Hui, 27, from Gansu Province, signed a contract with Eastern General Aviation Corp in March 2012 in which the company agreed to pay for the would-be pilot's training in exchange for a 15-year commitment to fly for the company after he earned his commercial pilot's license, according to the company's complaint.
Under the contract, Wang would have to repay the cost of training him, plus a penalty.
Wang completed his training, but refused to sign the employment contract because he thought the company offered a base salary that was well below the industry average. In the contract, the company offered to pay him 5,000 yuan ($804) per month plus 3,300 yuan for each hour in flight, Wang said in court.
He argued that a commercial co-pilot could earn a base salary of 20,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan per month, said Tang Zhengming, a press officer for the Huangpu District People's Court.
After Wang refused the contract, the company mailed a copy of it to his home in Tianshui, Gansu Province on November 21, according to the complaint. When Wang didn't reply, it filed a lawsuit against him on December 14 to recover the 1.3 million yuan it spent training him, plus a penalty of 390,000 yuan.
In court, Wang argued that he was accompanying his sick mother to a hospital in Beijing when the contract arrived at his home, leaving him no time to consider the issue.
Wang also disputed the company's assertion that it cost 1.3 million yuan to train him. In court, he presented a contract between another pilot and Anyang General Aviation Corp, the company that Eastern General Aviation hired to train him, showing a training fee of 475,000 yuan.
Eastern General Aviation argued that it entrusted Anyang Aviation School to train Wang, not Anyang General Aviation Corp, so the contract he presented was irrelevant.
The court asked Eastern General Aviation to provide more evidence to prove that it spent 1.3 million yuan to train Wang.