Mumbai: After cash-strapped Jet Airways was grounded on Wednesday, a section of employees decided to protest on Thursday outside the Jet Airways headquarters in Mumbai, seeking payment of their dues. This protest took place across the country and was led by the All India Jet Airways Officers and Staff Association. The association has also urged the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and State Bank of India (SBI) to act to their plea.
The employees have demanded their pay and protested the delay in bidding process. Earlier the consortium of banks headed by SBI had in March promised to release funds which they retracted on Wednesday. This protest which was led by Kiran Pawaskar, president of All India Jet Airways Officers & Staff Association (AIJAOSA) who is also a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) told The Free Press Journal,
“We spoke to the management of Jet Airways asking them to clear their stand on this issue. They have asked for a week’s time. The CEO of Jet Airways told us that they do not have money.” Pawaskar said, “We have written to the PMO asking them to intervene in this issue. We have also written to the chairman of SBI seeking a response for a delay in releasing funds.”
He added that if there is no timely intervention there could be a huge layoff. There are 20,000 employees with Jet Airways. The bankers had ousted former chairman Naresh Goyal with a promise that they would release funds to run the operations but they retracted on Wednesday they said they cannot pay the huge amount of Rs 400 crores.
Pawaskar questioned, “Why did they boot him out if they knew they were to release funds later in the date and the bidding process was to get delayed?” He also raised doubt on the delay in bidding process. “They need to justify why they are delaying the bidding date to May 10. This bidding can be done even earlier. This is just hurting the future of the airline,” said Pawaskar. Many such protests by other associations from Jet are expected to follow.
