Jet employees being laid off in phases

Mumbai: Jet Airways has issued termination letters to a section of the 1,900 employees who were shown the door last October and quickly reinstated in a dramatic turn of events.
Sources said the airline had kicked off the termination process on April 30 in a phased manner. “Each day saw 30-60 employees exiting in batches,” said an airline cabin crew, requesting anonymity. Jet Airways will pay these employees a month’s pay, in the Rs 30,000-35,000 range, and also return the security deposits specified under the service contract bond. This works out to an additional Rs 1.5 lakh.
Sources say the layoffs are likely to continue till Saturday as the cabin crew numbering 3,500 has been given a roster only till May 15. “Usually the crew is given a roster for the entire month,” they added. A spokesperson for Jet said, “The roster is being issued today (May 14).”
The story doing the rounds is that the sacked employees who were reinstated last year signed an agreement, which apparently specified that they could not protest or take legal action against the company if their services were terminated due to poor financial health of the airline. This has not been officially confirmed by the airline.
The Jet spokesperson said in an email response, “The airline has issued notices of termination to some cabin crew on probation in accordance with the terms of their contracts and in compliance with the law.” She added that under the present global economic environment, Jet had undertaken additional measures to streamline costs and improve its financial health.
14/05/09 Shubhra Tandon/Varada Bhat/Business Line