An Indian airline, Jet Airways has decided to send about 60 percent of its employees to leave without pay (LWP) from December 1 for three months.
Some of the senior management will also be part of LWP. The airline has also cut some employees’ salaries by up to 50 percent. The quantum would be higher for the CEO and CFO.
The action follows a stalemate between promoters Jalan-Kalrock Consortium (JKC) and its lenders as they delayed the airline’s relaunch. Earlier, it was expected the airline will start operations from October 1 onwards.
Sanjiv Kapoor CEO, Jet Airways, shared the information through a Twitter handle saying, “All staff will be paid full salaries for Nov 2022, the measures are effective Dec 1.”
“Two-thirds of staff not impacted at all. In July it was expected the ownership would transfer imminently. That has not happened, unfortunately”, he added.
All staff will be paid full salaries for Nov 2022, the measures are effective Dec 1. Two-thirds of staff not impacted at all. In July it was expected the ownership would transfer imminently. That has not happened, unfortunately. https://t.co/ss2lL3uPOy
— Sanjiv Kapoor (@TheSanjivKapoor) November 18, 2022
Jet Airways has around 250 staff. Last month, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) directed the consortium to pay the unpaid provident fund and gratuity dues of employees of the carrier. The total claim is about ₹275 crore.
“While we await the handover of the company as per the NCLT process, the longer-than-expected time being taken for the same may result in some difficult but necessary near-term decisions to manage our cashflows to secure the future while the airline is still not in our possession,” the airline said in a statement.
“It is apparent that the NCLT plan did not take the statutory dues of gratuity and PF issues at hand,” said Narayan Hariharan, former senior VP, of Jet Airways, and a member of the Jet Airways Officers and Staff Association.
“We had raised the issue but the NCLT said staff were not financial creditors. The decision of the NCLAT in October seals the law that ‘statutory welfare provisions cannot be sacrificed in the IBC process”, he pointed out.
Earlier, SpiceJet announced that it had made the temporary decision to put some pilots on leave without pay (LWP) for three months.
This move has been taken into consideration to reduce costs. The pilots who have been forced to go on leave without pay are from the airline’s Boeing and Bombardier fleets.
