Cornered, Jet takes back all 1,900 employees

Goyal says they are like family, can resume work on Friday

NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI: Two days after shaking the airline industry by handing pink slips to 1,900 employees and coming under attack from all quarters, Jet Airways reinstated all of them late on Thursday.

“I have not been able to sleep all night. I apologise for what has happened,” an emotional Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal told reporters at a late night press meet. “I request all of you to start work from tomorrow morning,” he said.

Goyal said his conscience did not allow economic consideration to be the reason for sacking employees. “When I saw the tears rolling down some of the workers face I was moved. I cannot see you all unhappy. My workers are like my family members,” he said.

Reiterating that the decision to sack the employees had nothing to do with Jet Airways’ alliance with Kingfisher, Goyal said the staff were not taken back “under political pressure and I have not met any body. It is my personal decision as father of the family”.

The decision came hours after three Congress ministers — Kapil Sibal, Murli Deora and  Kamal Nath — slammed the Jet chairman for the sack and criticised civil aviation minister Praful Patel for coming to Goyal’s defence.

The large-scale retrenchment of employees by Jet Airways had not gone down well with the Manmohan Singh government, which saw the move as a pressure tactic to bail out the crisis-ridden private aviation sector. 

Even as sacked employees continued to make headlines over the last two days, Jet Airways was pushed to the corner with only the civil aviation minister trying to justify its move.

While Raj Thackeray and the Left-supported trade union, CITU, were the first to take up cudgels on behalf of the sacked airline staff, other political parities, including the opposition BJP, too slammed Jet’s decision.

The BJP also criticised the government for remaining a mute spectator. “Or has the hire and fire policy come to stay in India?” said party spokesman Prakash Javdekar.

In the government, nobody, but Patel, seemed to be amused by the bailout calls by the private airline industry, including Jet Airways and its new alliance partner Kingfisher.

“If our airlines are not competitive and are trying to become efficient, it’s their call. It’s not a direct responsibility of the government,” said science and technology minister Kapil Sibal. His remarks, made after Thursday’s cabinet meeting, were a signal that the government had no intention of caving into the airline’s demands.

There was also perceptible anger in Congress circles at the manner in which the airline sought to pile on the pressure by issuing sack orders suddenly. “The timing of the decision is in bad taste,” petroleum minister Murli Deora told a group of reporters. “This is not the right time to retrench people, particularly before Diwali. I do not approve of such a move.”

Labour minister Oscar Fernandes told a TV channel that his ministry had sought a report from Jet. Fernandes had, some weeks ago, excused the lynching of a private company CEO by dismissed employees, saying that such things would happen if companies arbitrarily started sacking employees.

Deora also joined issue with Patel who had come to Goyal’s defence on Wednesday to criticise the petroleum minister for “not taking a positive” approach to the airline industry’s problems. “I am disappointed and hurt by Praful’s comments,” said Deora.

The top official in Deora’s ministry, petroleum secretary RS Pandey, twisted the knife in by announcing that Jet Airways owed Indian Oil Rs859 crore and Kingfisher Airlines Rs110 crore.

“This money has not been paid in spite of giving them a credit of 60 days,” Deora said, adding that the airlines also should stick to their commitments and pay oil companies.

But Patel still seemed to be batting for the airline industry. A PTI report from Hyderabad quoted him as expressing sympathy for the retrenched Jet staff, but he also said that “until and unless the industry remains healthy, how can you protect jobs... if you have to create jobs, protect jobs, then you also need to take care of the health of the industry,” he said.

Patel maintained that the decisions by individual airlines were being taken as they were facing a major financial crisis, primarily due to high fuel prices. “This has been happening in the airlines industry the world over. I have seen it in Australia, it is happening in the US, Europe and Asia,” he said.

Observers also wondered at the timing of an announcement by Air India, the national carrier that is directly under Praful Patel’s charge, that it would allow employees to take up to three to five years’ unpaid leave to save on employee costs. Though initial reports talked of up to 15,000 employees being targeted for this unpaid leave, the airline clarified later that the entire programme was voluntary.

It also appeared that Jet may have jumped the gun with its hasty retrenchment plan. Deora indicated on Thursday that the government is seriously considering a reduction in the price of aviation turbine fuel. This is one of the demands from private airlines that claim to be reeling under high fuel costs and poor load factors. The minister said a decision is likely by the end of October.