Want Salaries, Govt Intervention: Protesting Jet Airways Employees

“We’re just somehow surviving one day at a time,” say Jet Airways employees who haven’t received salaries for months

Jet Airways employees hold a silent protest outside Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. 

(Source: The Quint/Ankita Sinha)

Hundreds of Jet Airways employees gathered outside Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in a silent protest on Monday, 8 May, appealing the Central government to intervene and help secure their jobs.

It’s been over 20 days since Jet Airways grounded operations, but employees are yet to be paid for the last few months. Pilots and engineers of the airline say their salaries for the last 5 months are still due. Those working in the loading department say salaries for two months are pending.

Employees held placards demanding their salaries and government intervention.(Source: The Quint/Ankita Sinha)

“I live on rent and I can’t pay my rent. My savings are finishing and I’m paying from my savings. I haven’t paid my child’s school fees yet. My wife is pregnant and her medical expired last month. In a city like Mumbai, for pregnancy and at least for maternity, we have to spend Rs 1-1.5 lakhs which we don’t have right now.”

Ashish Basak, Engineer at Jet Airways 

Like Basak, 23-year-old Sunil Agiwale, who is working as a loader in Jet Airways for three years now, is clueless about how he’s going to meet his expenses this month. With parents working as farmers in drought-hit Maharashtra, Agiwale is the sole breadwinner for his family of four.

“My house rent is Rs 6,000-7,000. All my money goes into rent anyway. What will we eat now? This year because of the drought, even my parents have lost their crops. What do I tell them?” asked Sunil Agiwale.

An employee seeks job security from the airline. (Source: The Quint/Ankita Sinha)

The latest protest comes just a day after founder of Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal, wrote an emotional letter to the employees of the airline stating he anxiously hoped that ‘there will be a positive outcome on the 10th of May 2019 as per the BLRP deadline’. He added:

“It is our dearest wish, like yours, to witness the blazing sun reappear from behind the dark clouds of the past weeks, on a canvas of never ending blue. We both fervently pray that the “Joy of Flying” may once more bring cheer and solace to all of you and your dear families in the very near future.” 

Excerpt from the letter  

Goyal also mentioned that he made Rs 250 crore available to the banks from a group company besides pledging his shareholding in the airline to ensure the airline survived. But employees are not convinced.

“We have succumbed to his emotional appeal for the last few months, last six months, but somehow, we feel betrayed and let down by him. The last letter was no different.” 

Samit Banerjee, Maintenance Engineer  

Another engineer, Tamal Sen, added, “Similar kind of things have come from number of places but we want action because that is the only thing which will speak about the real intentions of an individual. The words don’t mean anything unless they’re converted into action.”