For the first time in its 16-year history, Jet Airways (India) Ltd has found itself in a confrontation with unionized workers that analysts warn could potentially upset an ambitious restructuring plan and make it difficult for management to trim the airline’s 13,000-strong workforce in the future.
Jet, India’s largest airline by market value, has had an association of pilots called the Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots, or SWIP, to redress employee complaints since 1998, but unlike state-owned Air India, with 12 recognized unions swearing affiliations to political parties ranging from the right-wing Shiv Sena to the Left, it has never faced worker unrest or a strike threat. Until last week.
On 24 August, Jet Airways management received a 14-day legal notice from the airline’s newly formed pilots’ grouping, National Aviators Guild, or NAG, that all member pilots would begin a strike starting 7 September unless the Mumbai-based carrier reinstated two sacked pilots.
NAG, registered on 24 July, claims 650 members. It says the two pilots were terminated from employment because they were instrumental in forming the union, the first pilots’ association at a private Indian airline, which has not been recognized by Jet Airways management. Jet Airways and its wholly owned subsidiary JetLite have a total of 1,069 pilots on their rolls.
“It’s very sad that we have to take a step like this,” said NAG president Girish Kaushik. “I love the airline. It’s the most professional airline people will vouch for (it), and we want to keep it that way, but if two people are sacked without reason, it’s not acceptable. It takes years to become a professional pilot, how can you sack them like a daily wage labourer?” Jet, which operates at least 449 flights daily with a fleet of 107 aircraft, in May announced a “comprehensive cost restructuring” strategy which included a withdrawal from uneconomic routes, leasing out of wide-body aircraft to West Asian carriers, a freeze on hiring, temporary reduction of management pay and pruning of executive perks. The airline also said it would close international crew bases “and as a last but necessary measure” trim any excess workforce.
“If management has a free hand, then restructuring becomes an easy exercise. When they (employees) form a union, as a body their views cannot be ignored. The process becomes that much more complex,” said M.S. Balakrishnan, a former director of finance and board member of Indian Airlines (now Air India) who dealt with unions in his tenure before retiring in 2007.
Every time Jet has tried to sack employees, it has faced stiff resistance. In October it announced the sacking of 1,900 staff. The employees took to the streets and television images of the protests brought political intervention to end the standoff. Founder chairman Naresh Goyal went on television to say he was taking everyone back because he understood the “agony” they must have gone through.
“I can imagine because I started my career when I was 18, everybody knows I used to get Rs300 a month salary. I couldn’t sometimes get a meal. I can imagine what you (employees) must have gone through,” he said. The sackings were based on the economics of running an airline, he said, but he wanted to “go beyond numbers, figures and money”.
The numbers have not been on Jet’s side for some time. While it posted a profit for four of the seven fiscal years it has been listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the airline has been in the red since its takeover of erstwhile Air Sahara (now JetLite) in 2007. In the last fiscal, Jet lost Rs961.41 crore, 47.03% higher than in 2007-08, as it struggled with high operating costs, excess capacity and competition.
Jet started scheduled operations in 1993. SWIP, which claims the support of 790 Jet pilots on its website, was formed in 1998 with the “purpose of interfacing with the management to ensure a smooth and seamless operation of our airline”, and was meant to be “non-interfering and non-involving with the other departments”. NAG is different. It has the mandate to do what Kaushik terms “thought boxing”.
“Now, the SWIP is not a union at all. With this you cannot make an agreement (like on wages), you can’t sign anything. They don’t have a legal authority to do so,” Kaushik, who has 20,000 flying hours of experience, said. “The airline has told us in the past, ‘we don’t even need to speak with you’ (SWIP). This encouraged us to have a guild. It’s just to protect our interests.”
The next step for NAG is to become a member of the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations a global pilots’ body representing at least 100,000 pilots in some 100 countries.
A senior SWIP member, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak with the media, said a decision whether to dissolve the association will be taken over time. Jet Airways pilots need a union to protect their interests at a time when the aviation industry is trying to weather tough times, he said.
“SWIP is a welfare association representing the airline’s pilots and is recognized by the management of Jet Airways,” a Jet Airways spokeswoman said in reply to a Mint questionnaire. “For several years now, the management has held regular discussions with SWIP on various concerns and issues of interest to SWIP members and these discussions have also been the forum for redressal of grievances.”
Jet Airways has approached the regional labour commissioner in Mumbai for conciliation. On 27 August, the office of the deputy labour commissioner, central, under the ministry of labour and employment, said NAG cannot go on strike while conciliation proceedings are under way. Kaushik said the “strike was on” still and NAG will decide which way to lean after talks scheduled for Monday.
Analysts link the formation of the union to insecurity among employees stemming from the economic downturn and its impact on airlines. “They (employees) all felt that nothing could (go) wrong with Jet (for many years). They were riding high. But last year when Jet went into a tailspin, it put some insecurity in them,” said A. Ranganathan, an air safety consultant and a former general secretary of the erstwhile Indian Airlines’s pilots union, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association. “When you have a downturn and insecurity they know only a union can protect them.”
Jet’s employee base has more than doubled from 6,608 in 2004 to 13,078 as of March 2009, including several 160 expat pilots, and foreign executive hires at its international offices.
The restructuring exercise and possible job cuts may have been the trigger for Jet pilots to unionize, said another analyst.
“Most global companies have extremely strong unions. When you have such a large company...you expect that there would be unions,” said Kapil Kaul, India chief executive of consulting firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. “Companies will have to deal with unions. Tomorrow you will have wage agreements with them.”
“For the employees, a union would offer a negotiating platform to bargain with the management on issues such as working conditions and career progression,” said Ranganathan.
Lalit Bhasin, a Supreme Court advocate and president of Society of Indian Law Firms, a grouping of the country’s top law firms, agrees. “The formation of (a) trade union is a welcome move as it leads to collective bargaining on the part of its members and gives them a sense of security,” he said.
But unions are also known to make aircraft lessors and insurance firms insecure because of concerns about possible sabotage. In the early 1990s, for example, leasing firms used to demand political risk insurance when leasing assets such as aircraft to airlines in India.
Kaul said he does not see leasing firms and insurance firms being wary of India now, given the country is an important market for them. “Most leasing firms deal with strong union cultures. The question appears only if there is a repeated labour dispute history of the airline. It maybe a factor but not an overwhelming factor,” he said. G.R. Gopinath, who started India’s first domestic low-cost airline, the erstwhile Air Deccan in 2003, said that unions gradually tend to become affiliated with some or the other political organization and invariably their leaders get into “power play and corruption”.
Kaushik says he is not keen to seek political backing. “So far as I am concerned we are not going for political affiliation. It’s going to mess up the whole airline, I am not for it. But my view is not the only one.” For now, NAG only wants the two sacked pilots to be reinstated. “My only agenda is to get the boys on board, we don’t want more salary or privileges. We will talk about other things later on.” Strike threat by newly formed pilots’ grouping may hurt the struggling carrier’s ambitious restructuring plans
400 Jet pilots go on sick leave
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 08, 2009, 1:15 IST
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.
Financial Express -- Jet pilots go on mass CL, operations hit
Agencies Posted: Tuesday, Sep 08, 2009 at 1234 hrs IST Updated: Tuesday, Sep 08, 2009 at 1234 hrs IST
Mumbai: Jet Airways cancelled 115 flights scheduled for the day in view of its pilots going on mass casual leave to protest sacking of their two colleagues.
"We have decided to cancel 115 flights of our total 345 flights in the day in view of pilots going on mass casual leave," Jet Airways spokesperson said.
Last month, the airline had sacked two of its seniormost pilots Captain Sam Thomas and Captain Balaraman saying their services were not required after they, along with other pilots, formed a trade union body, National Aviators Guild.
The union gave a strike call on September 7 to protest the sacking. The issue was referred to the Regional Labour Commissioner for conciliation. The commissioner conducted the first conciliation proceedings between the management and union on August 31 and advised both the parties to adhere to the Industrial Dispute Act of 1947. It said that since the matter was under conciliation, Jet pilots were legally bound to not to go on a strike. Though the pilots withdrew the strike call yesterday as a part of their strategy, they decided to go on mass casual leave.
The Guild claims representation of 645 pilots of the total over 1000 pilots in Jet Airways.
Financial Express -- Jet strike: govt may invoke Esma
Posted: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 0101 hrs IST Updated: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 0101 hrs IS
Mumbai: Flight schedules across the country were severely disrupted as almost half the 760 pilots belonging to Jet Airways took mass sick leave and struck work on Tuesday in protest against the sacking of two of their colleagues.
By evening, the company had sacked three more pilots, even as their representatives were huddled in a meeting with director general of civil aviation Nasim Zaidi to explain their position. The home ministry has threatened to use sections of the Essential Services Maintenance Act to force pilots back to work, even as the standoff is expected to continue into Wednesday.
As a result of the action, India’s largest airline by marketshare said 186 of its flights were cancelled, including 32 international flights, affecting 13,000 passengers. The airline scrambled to combine some flights and accommodate passengers on other carriers to counter what a Jet spokesman described as “an organised and planned sabotage of operations”. Civil aviation ministry secretary Madhavan Nambiar said Jet has been told to ensure full refund to passengers whose flights were cancelled. “We have directed (Jet’s) management to talk to the agitating pilots and put in place a mechanism to ensure such strikes are resolved timely in the future,” he added. Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met Nambiar and Zaidi twice on Tuesday to brief them on steps being taken to deal with the crisis.
The airline, which reported a loss of Rs 225 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year, is estimated to have lost over Rs 10 crore on Tuesday owing to the cancellation of flights. Jet has a fleet of 107 aircraft flying to 449 destinations daily. Up to noon, only a quarter of these flights operated normally, a Jet Airways statement said. The agitating pilots, who belong to the recently formed National Aviators’ Guild (NAG), are protesting the sacking of colleagues for their alleged role in forming the new union. The airline, however, has refused to acknowledge the demands.
“The pilots resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick. Since 10 pm last night, a total of 163 captains and 198 first officers reported sick, disrupting the flight schedule and causing inconvenience to the travelling public,” the company said. Jet Airways has also threatened appropriate action on obtaining a high court order restraining NAG and its members from resorting to industrial action. Pilots also opted for mass sick leave instead of a formal strike fearing action by the regional labour commissioner, who has such action illegal under the Industrial Disputes Act. Jet Airways’ shares ended Tuesday at Rs 262, up 2.64%, on the BSE as a resolution to the crisis seemed close at hand.
Financial Express -- Jet sets up crisis centre, keeping fliers updated
Agencies Posted: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 1509 hrs IST Updated: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 1509 hrs IST
Mumbai: Jet Airways on Wednesday said it was making all efforts to ensure that the passengers do not face inconvenience due to the protest by the airline pilots that has disrupted its domestic and international operations. Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan said the airline has re-accommodated 80 per cent of its stranded passengers on flights of other airlines, while they have “readily” refunded the airfare of the remaining ones.
“We have set up a crisis centre and are updating our website on a real time basis. We are also sending SMS updates informing them which flights are operational and which have been cancelled, so that passengers don’t have to come to the airport and face inconvenience,” Raghavan said.
Over 350 pilots of the Naresh Goyal-led airline went on mass sick leave since yesterday protesting the sacking of two senior pilots in July. About 186 flights, both domestic and international, were cancelled yesterday, while Jet has so far called off 153 flights for today. “We are sorry that some of our passengers have had to face trouble. It has been a surprise spring on us without any early warning,” Raghavan said.
About 13,000 passengers were yesterday left stranded at various airports across the country, the worst affected being Mumbai airport.
Jet Airways Chairman, Naresh Goyal, has appealed to the pilots to resolve the matter amicably and return to work.
Financial Express -- Jet extends olive branch, open for talks with pilots
Agencies Posted: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 2025 hrs IST Updated: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 2025 hrs IST
Mumbai: Jet Airways on Wednesday said its doors were open for talks with the agitating pilots who continued to stay away from duty crippling the airline's services for the second day.
"Doors are open... we will be sitting together," Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan told reporters here. Asked if it was true that the two pilots sacked last month were not given any valid reason for the management's action, he said Jet had "not gone out of the legal framework."
The sacking of the two pilots for allegedly trying to form an union sparked off an agitation that paralysed the airline's domestic and international flights since Tuesday. About 400 domestic and international flights of Jet Airways have been cancelled in the last two days resulting in over 14,000 passengers being stranded at various airports. Raghavan said the airline's domestic bookings had plummeted to 14,000 per day from 23,000 on normal days, in the wake of its pilots going on a mass sick leave.
However, the impact on the international bookings was less as the company retained 9,500 bookings against 10,500 it has on normal days. "We are able to carry 50 per cent of our passengers on Jet Airways and JetLite flights, while the remaining are being transferred to other airlines," Raghavan said.
Fares soar as airlines chip in to help Jet
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 10, 2009, 0:07 IST
The second day of the Jet Airways pilot protest saw the Bombay High Court issuing a contempt notice to pilots, fares soar and the airline industry putting its support behind the airline's management by taking up the slack of the 250 flights (above 500 domestic and international) that were grounded today after more than 400 pilots took mass sick leave for the second day in protest against two pilots sacked last month and three yesterday A release from the airline said the the Bombay High Court issued a notice to the National Aviator’s Guild (NAG) and its office bearers and made the matter returnable on September 14.Meanwhile, the pilots of the NAG, which has 650 members out of Jet’s 704 pilots (another 164 are expats and are not part of this protest), also declared that they were willing to talk to the management to resolve the issue. “Once Mr Goyal meets us, I am sure he will be able to understand our problems,” NAG joint secretary Captain Sam Thomas told reporters.
But late night talks between the Jet management and pilots ended in a stalemate.
In a day of hectic developments, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, and also worked out a plan to reduce inconvenience to passengers. “On normal days, we fly 23,000 passengers. As of today we have 14,000 passengers booked, of which 50 per cent would be boarded on JetLite and Jet Airways flights and the rest were accommodated with other airlines,” said Hamid Ali chief operating officer of Jet Airways, which is India’s largest airline.Airlines like Air India, Kingfisher, IndiGo and SpiceJet are picking up Jet passengers from grounded flights and the airline has also worked out inter-airline payment adjustments so that passengers do not have to pay extra for flights redirected to other airlines.
Fares available on the net, however, shot up 50 to 100 per cent during peak hours owing to the sudden reduction of capacity due to cancelled flights. “Except for Air India, low-cost carriers have raised fares 50 per cent and full-service carriers by around 100 per cent,” confirmed Mohit Srivastava, head of online sales, MakemyTrip.com, an online portal. On a Delhi-Bangalore route, Kingfisher normally charges Rs 6,000 (one way). The fare today rose to Rs 12,500. Low-cost carriers have upped Delhi-Bangalore ticket prices from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500, according to makemytrip data (see table).
Sources in Kingfisher admitted that the Vijay Mallya-owned airline was getting 100 per cent passenger load factor (PLF) in the business class currently instead of the average of 50 per cent. Air India saw passenger load factor increase from 60 per cent to 74 per cent today.
Significantly, both full-service and low-cost carriers have strongly supported Goyal.
“We cannot tolerate labour terrorism by employees who get salaries above Rs 4 lakh a month,” said a senior executive of a leading private airline, adding, “Also, at a time of recession for the industry we are concerned that the pilots’ attitude might spread to other airlines too. At this moment everyone has to make sacrifices.”
“Goyal has not budged an inch and that is the right way. We fully support his moves. I don’t see the pilots getting support from any other employees who distrust them,” added a CEO of a low-cost carrier.
NAG’s Thomas, however, made it clear that the mass leave move will continue till their demands of reinstating all the pilots sacked is met. Jet Airways has a 26.3 per cent — 18.9 per cent of Jet Airways and 7.4 per cent of JetLite — share of the domestic passenger market that carries 100,000 passengers a day.
Mint -- Jet, pilots fail to break impasse
B Y P .R . S ANJAI, Sept 10
MUMBAI
India's largest carrier by market value Jet Airway (India) Ltd cancelled about half its flights for a second day on Wednesday, as pilots failed to reach a compromise with the management on ending a dispute that sparked an undeclared strike, with aviators going on sick leave en masse. Flights are set to be cancelled on Thursday as well amid the crisis that's causing daily losses of about $4 million (Rs19.4 crore). Other airlines benefited, with some same-day fares registering a sharp increase.
The Bombay high court issued a contempt notice to the pilots' union of Jet Airways for continuing the strike despite a retraining order issued on Tuesday.
The carrier's domestic bookings dropped to 14,000 from 23,000, while international bookings fell by 1,000 from 10,500. On Wednesday, Jet Airways cancelled 32 international flights and 134 domestic flights after 432 pilots out of a total 760 reported sick.
Although the management and the National Aviators' Guild (NAG) have said they are open to talks, no formal discussions have been scheduled nor has a time frame been set to resolve the dispute.
"This will have far-reaching repercussions" for Jet's finances, said a senior executive at the airline on condition of anonymity. "It will not be able to pay salaries in September on time if the strike continues. This will also have an impact on payments to vendors." Chief operating officer Hameed Ali said pilots will have to furnish a medical certificate to extend sick leave beyond 48 hours. Pilot Suhail Jain was fired on Tuesday for refusing to let Jet's doctors examine him at his residence.
Mint could not immediately independently confirm whether the firing was legal. Under the terms of conciliation talks undertaken by the labour commissioner's office, the airline cannot fire anyone until negotiations are concluded.
NAG president Girish Kaushik and Jet Airways founder-chairman Naresh Goyal are in New Delhi, meeting officials as the stir intensifies. Kaushik is trying to gain support from political parties and other unions while Goyal is asking the government to intervene by invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act, according to a person close to the development, who declined to be named. "We are talking to pilots to find an amicable solution to this issue. We are ready to listen and our doors are open," Ali said.
The airline didn't say if it had a strategy in place for dealing with the continuation of the dispute. "The situation is extremely fluid and we will dynamically address challenges," said chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan. "We have opened a crisis centre to disseminate information to customers as fast as possible.
We are sending out SMSes and accommodating passengers on other flights." He said Jet has prepared a contingency plan, to be reviewed every hour based on the number of pilots reporting for work.
NAG joint secretary Sam Thomas said the union had not received any communication for talks to resolve the issue.
"Our demand is just to reinstate the retrenched pilots. For that we are ready to fight as long as it takes."
Thomas is one of two pilots--the other is D. Balaraman--fired in August for forming the union, the immediate trigger for the current standoff. Both claim the management has not given them any reason for the retrenchment.
Raghavan said his airline is willing to sit across the table and talk but "pilots cannot blackmail the carrier by resorting to such a mass leave".
Pilots of JetLite (India) Ltd, the low-fare carrier of Jet Airways, have not joined the labour action. That may change, Thomas said. "In spirit, JetLite pilots have said that they will support us," he said. "We have got feelers from others unions in Jet Airways including cabin crew and ground staff." The dispute stems from the better treatment of foreign pilots, Jain said. "We were always willing to take a pay cut, but all that we want is it should be equal across the board," said Thomas, adding that Indian pilots took a pay cut in December. "Expat pilots are enjoying all benefits while we were asked to take a pay cut. We need to be first-class citizens, at least in our country." Jet pilots formed an association in 1998 to look into issues such as salaries, allowances and flying hours. It was not a labour union and Jet Airways had signed at least two wage agreements with it. Later, Jet Airways refused to negotiate with it, leading to the formation of NAG in July. PTI contributed to this story.
Jet, India’s largest airline by market value, has had an association of pilots called the Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots, or SWIP, to redress employee complaints since 1998, but unlike state-owned Air India, with 12 recognized unions swearing affiliations to political parties ranging from the right-wing Shiv Sena to the Left, it has never faced worker unrest or a strike threat. Until last week.
On 24 August, Jet Airways management received a 14-day legal notice from the airline’s newly formed pilots’ grouping, National Aviators Guild, or NAG, that all member pilots would begin a strike starting 7 September unless the Mumbai-based carrier reinstated two sacked pilots.
NAG, registered on 24 July, claims 650 members. It says the two pilots were terminated from employment because they were instrumental in forming the union, the first pilots’ association at a private Indian airline, which has not been recognized by Jet Airways management. Jet Airways and its wholly owned subsidiary JetLite have a total of 1,069 pilots on their rolls.
“It’s very sad that we have to take a step like this,” said NAG president Girish Kaushik. “I love the airline. It’s the most professional airline people will vouch for (it), and we want to keep it that way, but if two people are sacked without reason, it’s not acceptable. It takes years to become a professional pilot, how can you sack them like a daily wage labourer?” Jet, which operates at least 449 flights daily with a fleet of 107 aircraft, in May announced a “comprehensive cost restructuring” strategy which included a withdrawal from uneconomic routes, leasing out of wide-body aircraft to West Asian carriers, a freeze on hiring, temporary reduction of management pay and pruning of executive perks. The airline also said it would close international crew bases “and as a last but necessary measure” trim any excess workforce.
“If management has a free hand, then restructuring becomes an easy exercise. When they (employees) form a union, as a body their views cannot be ignored. The process becomes that much more complex,” said M.S. Balakrishnan, a former director of finance and board member of Indian Airlines (now Air India) who dealt with unions in his tenure before retiring in 2007.
Every time Jet has tried to sack employees, it has faced stiff resistance. In October it announced the sacking of 1,900 staff. The employees took to the streets and television images of the protests brought political intervention to end the standoff. Founder chairman Naresh Goyal went on television to say he was taking everyone back because he understood the “agony” they must have gone through.
“I can imagine because I started my career when I was 18, everybody knows I used to get Rs300 a month salary. I couldn’t sometimes get a meal. I can imagine what you (employees) must have gone through,” he said. The sackings were based on the economics of running an airline, he said, but he wanted to “go beyond numbers, figures and money”.
The numbers have not been on Jet’s side for some time. While it posted a profit for four of the seven fiscal years it has been listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, the airline has been in the red since its takeover of erstwhile Air Sahara (now JetLite) in 2007. In the last fiscal, Jet lost Rs961.41 crore, 47.03% higher than in 2007-08, as it struggled with high operating costs, excess capacity and competition.
Jet started scheduled operations in 1993. SWIP, which claims the support of 790 Jet pilots on its website, was formed in 1998 with the “purpose of interfacing with the management to ensure a smooth and seamless operation of our airline”, and was meant to be “non-interfering and non-involving with the other departments”. NAG is different. It has the mandate to do what Kaushik terms “thought boxing”.
“Now, the SWIP is not a union at all. With this you cannot make an agreement (like on wages), you can’t sign anything. They don’t have a legal authority to do so,” Kaushik, who has 20,000 flying hours of experience, said. “The airline has told us in the past, ‘we don’t even need to speak with you’ (SWIP). This encouraged us to have a guild. It’s just to protect our interests.”
The next step for NAG is to become a member of the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations a global pilots’ body representing at least 100,000 pilots in some 100 countries.
A senior SWIP member, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak with the media, said a decision whether to dissolve the association will be taken over time. Jet Airways pilots need a union to protect their interests at a time when the aviation industry is trying to weather tough times, he said.
“SWIP is a welfare association representing the airline’s pilots and is recognized by the management of Jet Airways,” a Jet Airways spokeswoman said in reply to a Mint questionnaire. “For several years now, the management has held regular discussions with SWIP on various concerns and issues of interest to SWIP members and these discussions have also been the forum for redressal of grievances.”
Jet Airways has approached the regional labour commissioner in Mumbai for conciliation. On 27 August, the office of the deputy labour commissioner, central, under the ministry of labour and employment, said NAG cannot go on strike while conciliation proceedings are under way. Kaushik said the “strike was on” still and NAG will decide which way to lean after talks scheduled for Monday.
Analysts link the formation of the union to insecurity among employees stemming from the economic downturn and its impact on airlines. “They (employees) all felt that nothing could (go) wrong with Jet (for many years). They were riding high. But last year when Jet went into a tailspin, it put some insecurity in them,” said A. Ranganathan, an air safety consultant and a former general secretary of the erstwhile Indian Airlines’s pilots union, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association. “When you have a downturn and insecurity they know only a union can protect them.”
Jet’s employee base has more than doubled from 6,608 in 2004 to 13,078 as of March 2009, including several 160 expat pilots, and foreign executive hires at its international offices.
The restructuring exercise and possible job cuts may have been the trigger for Jet pilots to unionize, said another analyst.
“Most global companies have extremely strong unions. When you have such a large company...you expect that there would be unions,” said Kapil Kaul, India chief executive of consulting firm Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. “Companies will have to deal with unions. Tomorrow you will have wage agreements with them.”
“For the employees, a union would offer a negotiating platform to bargain with the management on issues such as working conditions and career progression,” said Ranganathan.
Lalit Bhasin, a Supreme Court advocate and president of Society of Indian Law Firms, a grouping of the country’s top law firms, agrees. “The formation of (a) trade union is a welcome move as it leads to collective bargaining on the part of its members and gives them a sense of security,” he said.
But unions are also known to make aircraft lessors and insurance firms insecure because of concerns about possible sabotage. In the early 1990s, for example, leasing firms used to demand political risk insurance when leasing assets such as aircraft to airlines in India.
Kaul said he does not see leasing firms and insurance firms being wary of India now, given the country is an important market for them. “Most leasing firms deal with strong union cultures. The question appears only if there is a repeated labour dispute history of the airline. It maybe a factor but not an overwhelming factor,” he said. G.R. Gopinath, who started India’s first domestic low-cost airline, the erstwhile Air Deccan in 2003, said that unions gradually tend to become affiliated with some or the other political organization and invariably their leaders get into “power play and corruption”.
Kaushik says he is not keen to seek political backing. “So far as I am concerned we are not going for political affiliation. It’s going to mess up the whole airline, I am not for it. But my view is not the only one.” For now, NAG only wants the two sacked pilots to be reinstated. “My only agenda is to get the boys on board, we don’t want more salary or privileges. We will talk about other things later on.” Strike threat by newly formed pilots’ grouping may hurt the struggling carrier’s ambitious restructuring plans
400 Jet pilots go on sick leave
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 08, 2009, 1:15 IST
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.
Financial Express -- Jet pilots go on mass CL, operations hit
Agencies Posted: Tuesday, Sep 08, 2009 at 1234 hrs IST Updated: Tuesday, Sep 08, 2009 at 1234 hrs IST
Mumbai: Jet Airways cancelled 115 flights scheduled for the day in view of its pilots going on mass casual leave to protest sacking of their two colleagues.
"We have decided to cancel 115 flights of our total 345 flights in the day in view of pilots going on mass casual leave," Jet Airways spokesperson said.
Last month, the airline had sacked two of its seniormost pilots Captain Sam Thomas and Captain Balaraman saying their services were not required after they, along with other pilots, formed a trade union body, National Aviators Guild.
The union gave a strike call on September 7 to protest the sacking. The issue was referred to the Regional Labour Commissioner for conciliation. The commissioner conducted the first conciliation proceedings between the management and union on August 31 and advised both the parties to adhere to the Industrial Dispute Act of 1947. It said that since the matter was under conciliation, Jet pilots were legally bound to not to go on a strike. Though the pilots withdrew the strike call yesterday as a part of their strategy, they decided to go on mass casual leave.
The Guild claims representation of 645 pilots of the total over 1000 pilots in Jet Airways.
Financial Express -- Jet strike: govt may invoke Esma
Posted: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 0101 hrs IST Updated: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 0101 hrs IS
Mumbai: Flight schedules across the country were severely disrupted as almost half the 760 pilots belonging to Jet Airways took mass sick leave and struck work on Tuesday in protest against the sacking of two of their colleagues.
By evening, the company had sacked three more pilots, even as their representatives were huddled in a meeting with director general of civil aviation Nasim Zaidi to explain their position. The home ministry has threatened to use sections of the Essential Services Maintenance Act to force pilots back to work, even as the standoff is expected to continue into Wednesday.
As a result of the action, India’s largest airline by marketshare said 186 of its flights were cancelled, including 32 international flights, affecting 13,000 passengers. The airline scrambled to combine some flights and accommodate passengers on other carriers to counter what a Jet spokesman described as “an organised and planned sabotage of operations”. Civil aviation ministry secretary Madhavan Nambiar said Jet has been told to ensure full refund to passengers whose flights were cancelled. “We have directed (Jet’s) management to talk to the agitating pilots and put in place a mechanism to ensure such strikes are resolved timely in the future,” he added. Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal met Nambiar and Zaidi twice on Tuesday to brief them on steps being taken to deal with the crisis.
The airline, which reported a loss of Rs 225 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year, is estimated to have lost over Rs 10 crore on Tuesday owing to the cancellation of flights. Jet has a fleet of 107 aircraft flying to 449 destinations daily. Up to noon, only a quarter of these flights operated normally, a Jet Airways statement said. The agitating pilots, who belong to the recently formed National Aviators’ Guild (NAG), are protesting the sacking of colleagues for their alleged role in forming the new union. The airline, however, has refused to acknowledge the demands.
“The pilots resorted to a simulated strike by reporting sick. Since 10 pm last night, a total of 163 captains and 198 first officers reported sick, disrupting the flight schedule and causing inconvenience to the travelling public,” the company said. Jet Airways has also threatened appropriate action on obtaining a high court order restraining NAG and its members from resorting to industrial action. Pilots also opted for mass sick leave instead of a formal strike fearing action by the regional labour commissioner, who has such action illegal under the Industrial Disputes Act. Jet Airways’ shares ended Tuesday at Rs 262, up 2.64%, on the BSE as a resolution to the crisis seemed close at hand.
Financial Express -- Jet sets up crisis centre, keeping fliers updated
Agencies Posted: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 1509 hrs IST Updated: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 1509 hrs IST
Mumbai: Jet Airways on Wednesday said it was making all efforts to ensure that the passengers do not face inconvenience due to the protest by the airline pilots that has disrupted its domestic and international operations. Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan said the airline has re-accommodated 80 per cent of its stranded passengers on flights of other airlines, while they have “readily” refunded the airfare of the remaining ones.
“We have set up a crisis centre and are updating our website on a real time basis. We are also sending SMS updates informing them which flights are operational and which have been cancelled, so that passengers don’t have to come to the airport and face inconvenience,” Raghavan said.
Over 350 pilots of the Naresh Goyal-led airline went on mass sick leave since yesterday protesting the sacking of two senior pilots in July. About 186 flights, both domestic and international, were cancelled yesterday, while Jet has so far called off 153 flights for today. “We are sorry that some of our passengers have had to face trouble. It has been a surprise spring on us without any early warning,” Raghavan said.
About 13,000 passengers were yesterday left stranded at various airports across the country, the worst affected being Mumbai airport.
Jet Airways Chairman, Naresh Goyal, has appealed to the pilots to resolve the matter amicably and return to work.
Financial Express -- Jet extends olive branch, open for talks with pilots
Agencies Posted: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 2025 hrs IST Updated: Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009 at 2025 hrs IST
Mumbai: Jet Airways on Wednesday said its doors were open for talks with the agitating pilots who continued to stay away from duty crippling the airline's services for the second day.
"Doors are open... we will be sitting together," Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan told reporters here. Asked if it was true that the two pilots sacked last month were not given any valid reason for the management's action, he said Jet had "not gone out of the legal framework."
The sacking of the two pilots for allegedly trying to form an union sparked off an agitation that paralysed the airline's domestic and international flights since Tuesday. About 400 domestic and international flights of Jet Airways have been cancelled in the last two days resulting in over 14,000 passengers being stranded at various airports. Raghavan said the airline's domestic bookings had plummeted to 14,000 per day from 23,000 on normal days, in the wake of its pilots going on a mass sick leave.
However, the impact on the international bookings was less as the company retained 9,500 bookings against 10,500 it has on normal days. "We are able to carry 50 per cent of our passengers on Jet Airways and JetLite flights, while the remaining are being transferred to other airlines," Raghavan said.
Fares soar as airlines chip in to help Jet
BS Reporter / New Delhi September 10, 2009, 0:07 IST
The second day of the Jet Airways pilot protest saw the Bombay High Court issuing a contempt notice to pilots, fares soar and the airline industry putting its support behind the airline's management by taking up the slack of the 250 flights (above 500 domestic and international) that were grounded today after more than 400 pilots took mass sick leave for the second day in protest against two pilots sacked last month and three yesterday A release from the airline said the the Bombay High Court issued a notice to the National Aviator’s Guild (NAG) and its office bearers and made the matter returnable on September 14.Meanwhile, the pilots of the NAG, which has 650 members out of Jet’s 704 pilots (another 164 are expats and are not part of this protest), also declared that they were willing to talk to the management to resolve the issue. “Once Mr Goyal meets us, I am sure he will be able to understand our problems,” NAG joint secretary Captain Sam Thomas told reporters.
But late night talks between the Jet management and pilots ended in a stalemate.
In a day of hectic developments, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, and also worked out a plan to reduce inconvenience to passengers. “On normal days, we fly 23,000 passengers. As of today we have 14,000 passengers booked, of which 50 per cent would be boarded on JetLite and Jet Airways flights and the rest were accommodated with other airlines,” said Hamid Ali chief operating officer of Jet Airways, which is India’s largest airline.Airlines like Air India, Kingfisher, IndiGo and SpiceJet are picking up Jet passengers from grounded flights and the airline has also worked out inter-airline payment adjustments so that passengers do not have to pay extra for flights redirected to other airlines.
Fares available on the net, however, shot up 50 to 100 per cent during peak hours owing to the sudden reduction of capacity due to cancelled flights. “Except for Air India, low-cost carriers have raised fares 50 per cent and full-service carriers by around 100 per cent,” confirmed Mohit Srivastava, head of online sales, MakemyTrip.com, an online portal. On a Delhi-Bangalore route, Kingfisher normally charges Rs 6,000 (one way). The fare today rose to Rs 12,500. Low-cost carriers have upped Delhi-Bangalore ticket prices from Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500, according to makemytrip data (see table).
Sources in Kingfisher admitted that the Vijay Mallya-owned airline was getting 100 per cent passenger load factor (PLF) in the business class currently instead of the average of 50 per cent. Air India saw passenger load factor increase from 60 per cent to 74 per cent today.
Significantly, both full-service and low-cost carriers have strongly supported Goyal.
“We cannot tolerate labour terrorism by employees who get salaries above Rs 4 lakh a month,” said a senior executive of a leading private airline, adding, “Also, at a time of recession for the industry we are concerned that the pilots’ attitude might spread to other airlines too. At this moment everyone has to make sacrifices.”
“Goyal has not budged an inch and that is the right way. We fully support his moves. I don’t see the pilots getting support from any other employees who distrust them,” added a CEO of a low-cost carrier.
NAG’s Thomas, however, made it clear that the mass leave move will continue till their demands of reinstating all the pilots sacked is met. Jet Airways has a 26.3 per cent — 18.9 per cent of Jet Airways and 7.4 per cent of JetLite — share of the domestic passenger market that carries 100,000 passengers a day.
Mint -- Jet, pilots fail to break impasse
B Y P .R . S ANJAI, Sept 10
MUMBAI
India's largest carrier by market value Jet Airway (India) Ltd cancelled about half its flights for a second day on Wednesday, as pilots failed to reach a compromise with the management on ending a dispute that sparked an undeclared strike, with aviators going on sick leave en masse. Flights are set to be cancelled on Thursday as well amid the crisis that's causing daily losses of about $4 million (Rs19.4 crore). Other airlines benefited, with some same-day fares registering a sharp increase.
The Bombay high court issued a contempt notice to the pilots' union of Jet Airways for continuing the strike despite a retraining order issued on Tuesday.
The carrier's domestic bookings dropped to 14,000 from 23,000, while international bookings fell by 1,000 from 10,500. On Wednesday, Jet Airways cancelled 32 international flights and 134 domestic flights after 432 pilots out of a total 760 reported sick.
Although the management and the National Aviators' Guild (NAG) have said they are open to talks, no formal discussions have been scheduled nor has a time frame been set to resolve the dispute.
"This will have far-reaching repercussions" for Jet's finances, said a senior executive at the airline on condition of anonymity. "It will not be able to pay salaries in September on time if the strike continues. This will also have an impact on payments to vendors." Chief operating officer Hameed Ali said pilots will have to furnish a medical certificate to extend sick leave beyond 48 hours. Pilot Suhail Jain was fired on Tuesday for refusing to let Jet's doctors examine him at his residence.
Mint could not immediately independently confirm whether the firing was legal. Under the terms of conciliation talks undertaken by the labour commissioner's office, the airline cannot fire anyone until negotiations are concluded.
NAG president Girish Kaushik and Jet Airways founder-chairman Naresh Goyal are in New Delhi, meeting officials as the stir intensifies. Kaushik is trying to gain support from political parties and other unions while Goyal is asking the government to intervene by invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act, according to a person close to the development, who declined to be named. "We are talking to pilots to find an amicable solution to this issue. We are ready to listen and our doors are open," Ali said.
The airline didn't say if it had a strategy in place for dealing with the continuation of the dispute. "The situation is extremely fluid and we will dynamically address challenges," said chief commercial officer Sudheer Raghavan. "We have opened a crisis centre to disseminate information to customers as fast as possible.
We are sending out SMSes and accommodating passengers on other flights." He said Jet has prepared a contingency plan, to be reviewed every hour based on the number of pilots reporting for work.
NAG joint secretary Sam Thomas said the union had not received any communication for talks to resolve the issue.
"Our demand is just to reinstate the retrenched pilots. For that we are ready to fight as long as it takes."
Thomas is one of two pilots--the other is D. Balaraman--fired in August for forming the union, the immediate trigger for the current standoff. Both claim the management has not given them any reason for the retrenchment.
Raghavan said his airline is willing to sit across the table and talk but "pilots cannot blackmail the carrier by resorting to such a mass leave".
Pilots of JetLite (India) Ltd, the low-fare carrier of Jet Airways, have not joined the labour action. That may change, Thomas said. "In spirit, JetLite pilots have said that they will support us," he said. "We have got feelers from others unions in Jet Airways including cabin crew and ground staff." The dispute stems from the better treatment of foreign pilots, Jain said. "We were always willing to take a pay cut, but all that we want is it should be equal across the board," said Thomas, adding that Indian pilots took a pay cut in December. "Expat pilots are enjoying all benefits while we were asked to take a pay cut. We need to be first-class citizens, at least in our country." Jet pilots formed an association in 1998 to look into issues such as salaries, allowances and flying hours. It was not a labour union and Jet Airways had signed at least two wage agreements with it. Later, Jet Airways refused to negotiate with it, leading to the formation of NAG in July. PTI contributed to this story.
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