Why Jet pilots' threat sounds hollow

It's highly unlikely that the pilots of Jet Airways who have threatened to strike work in their protest against the sacking of two of their colleagues would get either public sympathy or legal backing.
It's significant that the only support they have got so far is from the Aviation Industry Employees' Guild, the largest employees' union in Air India.
The Regional Labour Commissioner has already warned the newly-formed National Aviators Guild, an association of Jet pilots, against going on strike, saying it would attract legal action as the airline is a public utility.
The Commissioner said that the Guild, which claims to have 650 pilots as its members, was under legal obligation to not proceed on strike when the conciliation proceedings were in process. The conciliation proceedings were in process under section 21(1) and 22(2) of the Industrial Disputes Act. Jet's pilots surely know the legal position and hence their repeated threats of going on strike are nothing but public posturing designed to embarrass the management, which didn't exactly cover itself in glory by its inept handling of mass retrenchment of employees a year ago and the subsequent televised withdrawal of the retrenchment order under pressure from politicians.
Irrespective of the success of the strike threat, the fact is that unionism has finally entered private airlines. Jet has had an association of pilots called the Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots, to redress employee complaints since 1998. However, unlike Air India - Air India has13 recognised unions with affiliations to political parties of all hues - it has never faced worker unrest or a strike threat.
03/09/09 Business Standard/Rediff

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Categories: Jet Airways Sep 2009