Jet Airways to pay salaries to engineers, pilots in two installments

Jet Airways will pay its pilots, engineers, and senior executives 50% of their salary by September 11 and the remainder by September 26.

The airline's senior management has taken 5-25 per cent pay cut but salary cuts for pilots and engineers were put on hold because of protests. The airline posted Rs 13 billion first-quarter loss amid increasing costs and pressure on revenue.

"The salary for general managers and above, cockpit crew and aircraft maintenance engineers shall be disbursed in two instalments..For the month of September and October the same disbursement schedule shall be followed,” the airline's chief people officer Rahul Taneja wrote in an email to employees today. Salaries to all other employees were paid at the start of the month.

Jet Airways had a wage bill of over Rs 31 billion in FY 18. Pilots make up little more than 10 per cent of airline's 16,000 employee force but account for about half of its salary bill. 

“Withholding salaries, that too without prior notice, is a serious matter and the management will bear sole responsibility for any repercussions,” Jet Airways’ pilots said in a communication to the management earlier this week. “We would like to advise that failure to address the above points and not paying the salaries on time would lead to non-cooperation by pilots,” they warned.

“(Earlier) it was agreed that, henceforth, salaries would be paid on time and, if there were to be a delay, the same would be communicated to the pilots well in time,” the pilots said. “We are deeply disappointed over both these conditions being violated by the management and the pilot body would be sure to share our disappointment,” they said. The pilots had written to airline chief executive Vinay Dube late last month expressing their displeasure over the “unnecessary” increase in expenditure in the recent times.

In a fresh letter, the pilots have also demanded that "all unnecessary positions and committees/ groups created in the last three months be dissolved with immediate effect and the hiring of the expensive expats (vis-a-vis domestic pilots) be stopped forthwith.” “We trust you will treat the above with the urgency it deserves and take immediate steps to resolve the situation,” they said in the communication.