Mumbai: Jet Airways on Tuesday sacked three more of its pilots, deepening a row which has caused chaos at airports, caused the cancellation of Jet Airways
The airline has announced that it is cancelling over 30 domestic flights that were scheduled to operate on Wednesday as the government watched from the sidelines and said that it was for Jet and its pilots to resolve a dispute, which led to over 360 pilots going on sick leave on Tuesday.
The strike is linked to the demand by the National Aviation Guild (NAG), a newly-formed pilots’ union of Jet, demanding the reinstatement of two pilots Sam Thomas and D Balaraman, whose services were terminated on July 31. The NAG had been in dialogue with the company and had said it would go on strike, if its demands were not met. The pilots were sacked for their role in setting up the union.
Mumbai was the worst affected, with 115 of Jet’s flights not taking off from the city. In Chennai, six flights, including three international flights, were cancelled, while four flights flying out of Kolkata were cancelled.
Jet said, in a statement released on Tuesday, that “after announcing the withdrawal of the strike, the pilots resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick. Since 10 pm last night, a total of 163 captains and 198 first officers reported sick disrupting the flight schedule and causing inconvenience to the travelling public.”
According to the airline, the number of pilots who have reported sick represents almost 40% of the total strength of 760 national pilots.
Jet Airways’ chairman, Naresh Goyal told ET NOW that the “strike” was illegal. NAG president Girish Kaushik told ET that the association’s only demand is to restore the two senior pilots who were sacked in July.
09/09/09 Economic Times
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Home »
Jet Airways Sep 2009
» Thousands stranded as Jet pilots go on mass sick leave
Thousands stranded as Jet pilots go on mass sick leave
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
0 comments:
Post a Comment