Jet peace talks shift to city, deadlock may break today

Mumbai. New Delhi. Bangalore: Friday was to be the day of settlement. However, the conciliation meeting between the Jet management and the pilots' union, mediated by chief labour commissioner SK Mukhopadhyay in New Delhi, was inconclusive. The standoff continued as the airline cancelled over 150 flights with the pilots -- over 450 of them -- calling in sick for the fourth consecutive day.
The two sides will resume discussions on Saturday, without mediation from any conciliation officer, at the Jet Airways office in Mumbai. On Thursday night, it had seemed almost certain that the two parties would be able to break the stalemate and pilots would resume flying after agreeing on a tentative draft for ending the crisis. However, the impasse continued on Friday, even after a nine-hour close-door meeting between senior Jet executives and the pilots.
After the meeting, Saroj Datta, executive director of Jet Airways, said that discussions between the two parties had proved inconclusive. "There is no deadlock, we are in discussion and only after the agreement is finalised will we list out which issues have been agreed upon and which haven't," he said. He also made it clear that there was no decision yet on whether Jet would take back the four sacked pilots.
Girish Kaushik, president of the National Aviation Guild (NAG), the Jet pilots' body, said, "The talks will continue in Mumbai as it is too late here. This is not a cricket match that someone will win... both sides are meeting to resolve issues." He said the airline had agreed to take back the sacked pilots.
12/09/09 Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Jet Airways Sep 2009