BENGALURU: Shocked by the sudden shutdown of Jet Airways, the beleaguered employees of the airline in the city are now seeing a ray of hope. Though help had started pouring in from various rival airlines for staffers such as pilots, cabin crew and technicians, the other workers were feeling left in the lurch. The crisis had left many of the 22,000 staffers unpaid over the last few months, finally leading to unemployment.
However, bringing some relief to the employees and their families, some tech companies and start-ups have come forward to try and take them on board. Lowe’s India, for instance, announced on Tuesday that it is planning to hire employees of the carrier for IT-related job positions.
“During an employment crisis such as this, we believe, as a good corporate citizen, that we will do what matters to people and communities around us,” James A. Brandt, senior vice president and managing director of the home improvement firm, said. “We are reaching out to the technology employees of Jet Airways directly, and so far, we have seen a good response – both from the employees and third party companies servicing Jet as a client. We are scanning the resumes and are open to Jet reaching out to us to partner for placements,” he added.
City-based startups such as Cure.fit and Bounce have also reached out to the unpaid Jet staffers on Twitter, asking them to apply for relevant jobs. “With the sad turn of events at Jet Airways, a lot of its employees must be looking at new opportunities. We would be happy to hire some of these candidates,” Ankit Nagori, co-founder of Cure.fit, tweeted, asking netizens to share the tweet widely.
Companies are trying to help the workers in any way they can, even if it involves taking small measures. Shajan Samuel, geography head (South) of Aptech Limited told CE that have they only one vacancy right now, for which they have decided to hire a Jet Airways employee. “We know it’s small, but we wanted to help those employees in a way what we are capable of,” Samuel said.