Jet Airways asks 60% staff to go on leave without pay for 3 months- QHN

Jet Airways has decided to send 60 per cent of its employees, including senior managers, on leave without pay. The remaining staff is likely to face temporary pay cuts, the Moneycontrol reported.

This news comes after the airline’s revival plan hit another hurdle on November 18, when its new owner Jalan-Kalrock told the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) of its inability to pay additional money to clear provident fund and gratuity dues of around Rs 250 crore to employees.

Sanjay Kapoor, the company’s CEO also took to Twitter to calm nerves and asserted, “No one is being fired.”

No one is being fired. https://t.co/Xy2DgGWwqM

— Sanjiv Kapoor (@TheSanjivKapoor) November 18, 2022

As the NCLT process takes longer-than-expected time, the grounded air carrier may have to take “difficult but necessary near-term decisions” to manage their cash flows to secure the future as they await the airline’s complete possession, a Jet Airways spokesperson had said.

The consortium stuck to the amount of Rs 475 crore while quoting its bid to take over Jet Airways, saying that it is not liable to pay anything beyond the said amount to creditors and all claims must be settled within that sum.

All the remaining claims that are not counted in the approved resolution plan should be settled from the cash balance of the airline that stood at Rs 50 crore, and the remaining from the share of banks, the report said.

At present former staff account for 60 per cent of the workforce in Jet Airways, Ankit Jalan, the Board Member, Jalan-Kalrock Consortium had confirmed in a statement. While emphasising on the goodwill for the Jet Airways brand and public support for its revival.

“The revived Jet Airways will also provide additional career opportunities, including the airline’s former staff who currently make up more than 60 per cent of the current workforce, and for many more as the revived airline grows. Jet Airways would be a shining example of the IBC process working as intended in India,” Jalan had said.

NCLAT on October 21, had asked the consortium to clear unpaid provident funds and gratuity to workmen and employees of the airline until June 2019 when the insolvency process was initiated.

The NCLT approved the Jalan-Kalrock Consortium’s capital infusion plan of Rs 1,375 crore in June 2021. Out of this total sum, Rs 900 crore was promised towards capital expenditure and Rs 475 crore as working capital to settle claims of all creditors.