Jet Airways pilots' strike may end today

New Delhi: The Jet Airways management and National Aviators Guild (NAG) made a breakthrough tonight with a tentative draft which indicated the airline is likely to reinstate all the five pilots it had terminated, with some riders. However, a Jet spokesperson said: “Currently, we are not aware of any such move.”
“Jet management has agreed to take back all the four pilots,” Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam, told Business Standard, who said he was negotiating between the management and the pilots. It is expected that this draft agreement would be presented to the central labour commissioner tomorrow. Earlier during the day, the Union Ministry of Labour stepped in as Jet Airways' protesting pilots hardened their stance over the dismissal of five employees and the right to form a union and took mass sick leave for the third day, forcing the airline to cancel over 160 domestic and 40 international flights.
It was a day of more drama with the NAG, representing 650 Jet pilots, drumming up support from labour unions across the political spectrum and the airline's cabin crew ground staff appealing to the pilots to return to work.
Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), the two commercial pilots’ union of Air India, are supporting the Jet pilots. Union representatives of both ICPA and IPG have said that in case Air India puts in additional flights to take the Jet Airways’ passengers, they are planning to tell their members not to pilot those flights. ICPA members today met NAG pilots in Delhi.
Chief Labour Commissioner S Mukhopadhyay and the Jet Airways management led by Executive Director Saroj Datta attended the first round of a reconciliation meeting today, in which the pilots were conspicuous by their absence. NAG Joint Secretary Sam Thomas alleged the pilots were not given notice to attend what he described as "management engineered talks".
The talks coincided with Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal calling on Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge in Shram Shakti Bhawan, New Delhi, which ministry officials described as a “courtesy call”.
Kharge, however, made it clear that the pilots had every right to form a union. “No one can deny the pilots the basic right to organise themselves in a union,” he told reporters today.
11/09/09 Business Standard

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Categories: Jet Airways Sep 2009