No pay cuts in Jet Airways, says Shiv Sena union

Jet Airways’ management may not able to implement the pay cut it wanted in lieu of retaining 800 retrenched employees. That’s because the Shiv Sena has now got into the act after the breakaway Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s prominent supporting role to retrenched employees yesterday.

The Shiv Sena union in Jet Airways claims it has a letter from the management that not only promises not to implement pay cuts but will also give Diwali bonus and ex gratia payments, Rajya Sabha MP and Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut told Business Standard.

After Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal made his drama-filled, late-night announcement revoking the termination of employees who were retrenched on Tuesday, the Shiv Sena has hardened its stand to ensure that MNS doesn't walk away with the credit.

In a statement issued to the party's mouthpiece Samana, Sena's working president Uddhav Thackeray has said besides the 800 employees who were sacked, all other Jet staffers are permanent employees so it is against the law to reduce their wages. If the Jet management persists, the statement said the Sena would “teach it a lesson in its own style”.

Speaking about the retrenchment and restoration Raut said, "Though we are against the summary termination of any employee, all those who were retrenched were on probation and the management has every right to sack them. But why should all other employees suffer a pay cut for them?"

Earlier in the day, MNS’s Raj Thackeray told reporters he welcomed the gesture from Naresh Goyal to take back all the retrenched employees. “In difficult times both management and employees have to make some compromises to ensure that the company for which all of them work doesn't close down," he said.

For good measure, he also warned the Jet management to ensure that, in the future, the majority of jobs in the company goes to Maharashtrians.