500 unpaid Jet staffers hold protest, want cops to book airline, bankers

MUMBAI: A union representing Jet Airways officers and staff sought police intervention on Friday to resolve issues arising over non-payment of salaries and employee grievances. The move came after more than 500 Jet Airways employees marched from the Mumbai airport to its office in Siroya Centre, Andheri, and held a demonstration that lasted for over four hours, to give voice to their plight.

The struggling carrier has not paid its 17,000-odd employees salaries for March.

Referring to the non-payment of salaries, Kiran Pawaskar, president, All India Jet Airways' Officers and Staff Association, sent a letter to Sahar police asking the senior inspector “to register offences under cheating, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation and other offences against the chairman (Jet Airways, the CEO and the representatives of the State Bank of India (bankers)”.

The law provides for criminal action against employers and given the fact that Jet Airways has been taken over by bankers, the provisions of law would apply to them, he said. The letter sent by the 19-year old Jet union stated that this violation, apart from being legal violation under the labour law, is also a serious offence of breach of trust as the company was handed over last month by the former chairman Naresh Goyal to the State Bank of India under the Resolution Plan.

Earlier in the afternoon, Pawaskar met some officials from the Jet management to discuss the salary non-payment issue.

“The salaries cannot be paid till the lenders and bankers release the amount needed to pay the employees. The management gave us no deadline or word on when the payments would be made,” said a Jet official.