Mumbai, September 8
Nearly 200 flights of Jet Airways were cancelled or combined as 363 pilots, including 163 captains and 198 first officers affiliated to the National Aviators' Guild, reported sick in protest against the management’s decision to sack two of their colleagues who played a major role in forming the union. Jet Airways said 186 flights, 154 domestic and 32 international, were affected inconveniencing more than 15,000 passengers.
The NAG has more than 600 members and most of them are staying away from their duties on the pretext of being ill. Girish Kaushik, one of the office-bearers of the NAG, said the pilots were staying away from their jobs because they could be suffering from food poisoning. The agitating pilots represent nearly 40 per cent of the total strength.
Doctors were sent to the homes of some of the pilots and the airline claimed 70 per cent of those checked were fit for work. These pilots were asked to report to work immediately. Late in the evening, the NAG said three more pilots were sacked. They were identified as Suhail Jain, Rashmi Gaur and Venkat Vinod.
Asking the management to reinstate the pilots “unconditionally”, Girish Kaushik accused the Jet management of “blackmailing us by asking us to disband the union in exchange for reinstatement of the sacked pilots. This is not at all acceptable to us.”
The pilots chose this method of protest after withdrawing their strike notice on Monday. The Union Labour Ministry had asked the pilots not to go ahead
with the strike and asked them to negotiate with the management The striking Jet Airways pilots are likely to meet the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the aviation regulatory body, tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Jet management described the action as illegal and an attempt to “sabotage” the operations. The airline also approached the Bombay High Court to restrain the pilots from continuing with the strike. Jet Airways officials said the court has restrained the pilots from going on strike. However, the details of the court’s order cannot be confirmed.
Jet Airways is operating some flights with the help of expatriate pilots and executive pilots who are not part of the union. It has decided not to accept flight bookings for Wednesday.
The airline said that it would give a full refund to affected passengers or rebook themselves on alternate dates without any cancellation or reissue charges. A large number of Jet passengers were accommodated on Air India and Kingfisher Airlines flights.
