Centre in Jet dilemma

The civil aviation ministry has spoken of invoking a tough law under which “sick” Jet pilots can be arrested but the government is wary of pushing too hard.
The ministry is in a dilemma about how to handle the situation. Jet chief Naresh Goyal is lobbying hard to get the government on his side. But the government is also aware that it cannot deny the pilots the right to organise themselves.
Technically, only blue-collar workers can form unions but white-collar employees get around the problem by calling their organisations associations or guilds.
At the root of the problem is the dismissal of two pilots last month for forming an association. The Jet pilots’ body, National Aviators Guild (NAG), has called the dismissals — three more pilots were sacked today — “blackmailing” to disband the union “in exchange for reinstatement of the sacked pilots”.
“This is not at all acceptable to us,” NAG president Girish Kaushik said.
Goyal today met civil aviation secretary M. Madhavan Nambiar. Although the Union government has cited “consumer interest” to involve itself in efforts to end the agitation, it has stayed away from invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma). The ministry may wait a day before going ahead with the extreme move.
08/09/09 The Telegraph

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Categories: Jet Airways Sep 2009