The Hindu Business Line : Take back sacked pilots within 7 days, union appeals to Jet

Mumbai, Aug. 6 The newly registered pilots’ union, National Aviators’ Guild (NAG) has asked Jet Airways to reinstate the two sacked pilots with in seven days.

“We will resort to all peaceful means of resolving the issue including seeking the Civil Aviation Ministry and Director General of Civil Aviation’s intervention in the matter. If the issue is not resolved then, the Guild could resort to some industrial action,” said Captain Girish Kaushik, President, NAG, the Jet Airways pilots union.

Late last week Capt Sam Thomas and Capt D. Balaraman were told by email that their services were no longer required. Both have 10-15 years of flying experience each. While Capt Thomas operated a Boeing 737, Capt Balaraman was at the controls of a 777. Both were instrumental in forming the NAG.

Since Jet’s management has not recognised NAG, the airline’s present pilots’ welfare association, SWIP (Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots) will do the talking for now.

However, “NAG has been registered with the Labour Commission under Trade Union Act,” said Capt Kaushik.

Earlier this week too, SWIP had met the management to request it to take the pilots back.

“The management had said that we will have to follow the appeal procedure, which we will,” a senior SWIP member told Business Line.

According to the pilots, the move (on the part of the management) was unjustified because it was aware of the formation of the union.

“If it had any reservations on it, it should have told us that rather than taking this abrupt step,” one of them said. According to Captain Kaushik, SWIP is only a welfare association of Jet’s pilots and does not have the benefits of a recognised union. The idea behind having a union was “not to fight with the management” but to protect employees’ legal rights, he said.

“When they (airlines) are in trouble they can form associations and challenge the Government. Why is it such an issue for us?” questioned another pilot, an obvious reference to the private airlines’ one-day strike planned on August 18 which was later withdrawn.

Jet Airways has remained silent on the issue, except for saying that “this is an internal matter”.

More Stories on : Trade & Labour Unions | Airlines | Jet Airways (India) Ltd

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