NEW DELHI: Jalan Kalrock Consortium, the new owners of Jet Airways, in a public notice told the existing staff of Jet Airways that they won’t be able to re-employ all of them.
“In the coming days, we intend engaging with many of you to ascertain the role you can play in years to come, in our effort to create history, when Jet Airways becomes airborne again. We cannot commit re-employment to each of you, but can surely say that this company belongs to you and right now, it is not in the interest of your airline to onboard everyone,” the consortium said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in a letter to the new civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia earlier this week, the All India Jet Airways’ Officers & Staff Association requested him to take up their issues.
The letter said that a complete injustice has been done to the employees. It said that the dues offered to them is about Rs 52 crore which is a miniscule amount compared to the original claim (Rs 1265 crore) accepted by the resolution professional.
There are over 3,500 employees associated to the airline even after it was grounded in April 2019. However, the consortium plans to have only few hundred workers when Jet restart in services, possibly by December this year. At its peak, Jet had over 20,000 employees.
In June this year, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approved the resolution plan submitted by the Kalrock-Jalan consortium for the airline. According to the revival plan, the consortium proposes a payment of about Rs 23,000 to each employee as against their submitted dues which ranges anywhere between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 85 lakh.
Around 95% of the employees are yet to accept the consortium’s proposal. Jalan Kalrock statement said the proposal will be made only if at least 95% of the people vote in favour of it and they should accept the same in the larger interest of the employees and the beloved airline.