190 Jet Airways flights cancelled; three pilots sacked: Strike on
New Delhi: Jet Airways, which had to cancel 190 flights by 2 pm on Tuesday due to mass sick leave taken by its pilots, has sacked three more pilots. The airliner
has called the agitation illegal, and has secured a restraint order from Bombay
High Court against any strike. "The Bombay High Court has passed an order restraining
any kind of strike," Jet CEO Wolfgang Prock-Schauer was quoted as saying. "We
were assured by the National Aviators Guild last night that there would be no
strike and we went by this assurance. But we were shocked by the mass sick leave
by about 360 pilots... it is nothing but a simulated strike," he added. The Jet
pilots have been protesting the sacking of two of their colleagues by the management
for reportedly joining the guild. Asked what action the management would take
against the striking pilots and if the two-sacked pilots could be reinstated,
Prock-Shauer declined to comment. Prock-Schauer also said that he was confident
about normal services by Wednesday. "Four Kuki militants killed in Manipur The
matter is on in the Labour Commission and we would not like to comment," he said.
Jet Airways had earlier sought the Directorate General of Civil Aviation''s (DGCA)
intervention to resolve the crisis. Last month, Jet Airways had terminated the
services of two of its senior most pilots, saying their services were not required
after both formed a trade union body within the company. A conciliatory meeting
was called on August 31 between the Jet Airways management and the union, which
claims to have representation of over 650 pilots. Jet Airways has 1000 pilots
on its rolls. Although the National Aviators Guild (NAG) has decided not to go
on the proposed strike, its members have decided on an alternate course of protest
like going on mass casual leave to hamper operations of the private carrier.
September 8, 2009
Jet Airways has vowed to give passengers ''a full refund and said that passengers''
can reissue or rebook flights without any penalty. Jet Airways chairman Naresh
Goyal met Civil Aviation Secretary Madhavan Nambiar on Tuesday morning for about
half-an-hour and is understood to have discussed the situation. A large number
of passengers, who had to take the flights operated by the private carrier, were
accommodated in the flights of Air India and other carriers.
