Around 400 Jet Airways pilots went on sick leave late Monday night. The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Aviators Guild (NAG) — a recently formed Jet Airways pilots’ union. The decision would come as a setback to the private airline, especially since NAG had earlier in the day called off their proposed strike from midnight of September 7.
The reason the strike was called off was that the conciliation meeting with the management was still on. Going ahead with the strike once the conciliatory procedure is on is illegal.
However, during the day itself, pilots who are part of the guild said they would go ahead and protest in different ways, like going on leave.
The union, which has the support of over 650 pilots, had called for an indefinite strike from the midnight of September 7.
“We have called off the strike, as it will be illegal to go ahead with it. But our pilots are saying that they will hamper the services of the airline in different ways,” an NAG representative said. Later on, after midnight, the representative confirmed that around 400 pilots had gone on sick leave.
The Jet Airways spokesperson could not be contacted. Earlier in the day, the airline had maintained that it would “...follow the due process as indicated by the labour commissioner.”
The NAG is demanding the reinstatement of two pilots — Sam Thomas and G Balaraman — who, according to the guild, were terminated from services without any specific reason.
The matter was referred to the labour commissioner who heard both the sides on August 31 and called them again on September 14.
If they go all on sick leave, then recruit another ones. If another ones are not available, then train the new ones for crisis & again the old ones go on unnecessary leave, then sack them off. Let them feel threaten about their jobs & they will perform well. They have no threat of their jobs, so they are playing the game.
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