The employees of Jet Airways have written to President Ram Nath Kovind as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi looking for their involvement in order to recover the unpaid dues as well as to accelerate the procedure of emergency funds for the airline, which has closed its operations for the short term.
Cash-starved Jet Airways, which has about 23,000 workforces, has overdue payment of salaries to the employees, as well as of the pilots.
In the middle of doubt over the upcoming course of the carrier, two of the employees’ unions have currently written to the President and the Prime Minister.
In distinct but similarly-worded letters this week, the Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (SWIP) and Jet Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Welfare Association (JAMEWA) have demanded help in clearing their unsettled salary dues.
One of the letters said, “We request you to consider the situation with the urgency it deserves and direct the management of Jet Airways (India) Ltd to expeditiously disburse all outstanding dues to affected employees.” Itt further added, “We also urge you to expedite the process of emergency funding, as every minute and every decision is very critical in these testing times.”
After months of insecurity, Jet Airways declared provisional hold-up of its operations on April 17 as it was unsuccessful to obtain emergency funds from lenders.
The unions emphasised that a unit of workforces have not been paid their salaries on time for the last seven months and that the disturbing circumstances was also carried to the notice of the Ministry of Labour and Employment in the month of March.
The letter stated, “The management of Jet Airways has gone back on its salary arrears payment schedule conveyed by mail dated December 7, 2018. The outstanding amount for pilots and engineers as of now is three months salary (full salaries for the months of January, February and March), and for all other staff is one month’s salary.”
Observing that personnel did their best to keep up the uppermost criteria of safety and proficiency in these trying times, the alliance said non-payment of salaries is affecting great hardships to personnel.
The letter further said, “… even after all our efforts, we are not seeing any ray of hope and so it is our humble plea to take this matter under your guidance for an immediate action for the revival of the entire system.”
SWIP has about 1,200 members whereas JAMEWA denotes more than 500 employees.
They said, “We have also realised that along with our Jet Airways sinking, we are not only 23,000 employees who will be affected directly but a number of people who are running business or are associated with us some way or the other.
They further added, “Even the shops at the airports are facing a lull. Such a big airline going down will leave a huge vacuum behind. Passengers are already facing the brunt of it.
A day after the airline put off its operations, hundreds of staffs had gather round in the national capital looking for measures to recover the carrier, which has been in operation for just about 26 years.
