Uncertainty around revival plans pushes Jet Airways employees to explore alternative avenues

"The team we have brought on board is passionate about relaunching Jet Airways, and is proud of the airline they are trying to build; proud of trying to create history. We all have so much to look forward to in a revived Jet Airways," Kapoor said.

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Some employees said discontent in the workforce has risen.

"The belief in the current top management of Jet Airways is one of the biggest reasons employees are not aggressively looking for alternative opportunities," an employee working with the human resource team at Jet Airways since last year told Moneycontrol.

Standoff with creditors  

He added that while belief in the airline's top brass was strong, some employees have started looking for alternative roles as a standoff over the revival plan between creditors and the airline's new owner, the Jalan Kalrock consortium, has left them questioning the timeline for the relaunch.

Another employee in the sales division of the airline Moneycontrol spoke to said that given the current talent crunch in the Indian aviation industry and aggressive expansion plans of rival airlines like Air India and IndiGo, Jet's current employees are not likely to wait for more than a couple of months before scouting for alternative opportunities.

"The salary cuts imposed from December are quite disheartening and are making it difficult for employees to continue believing in the Jet Airways revival plan," the second employee said.

Row over past dues 

Similarly, a female flight attendant at Jet Airways added that the unwillingness of the Jalan Kalrock consortium to pay off dues to former employees has also left some members of its current workforce disgruntled.

"Most of us at Jet Airways 2.0 were part of the earlier Jet Airways and have worked with the former employees whose dues are still to be paid. The promoter's decision to back off from payments is an indication they may focus on cost savings rather than employee welfare going forward," she said.

Narayan Hariharan, a former Senior Vice President at Jet Airways, told Moneycontrol that everyone associated with the airline takes pride in the fact that the airline was regarded as the best airline in India in terms of service before its collapse and has an emotional bond attached to its revival.

He added that while employees want to see Jet Airways take to the skies again, not a lot has been done by the new owners on the ground and everything is shrouded in secrecy, which has left employees feeling uneasy.

Hariharan added that even former employees of Jet Airways who had not been retained by the Jalan Kamrock Consortium are keen to work with the company again, but expect all their past dues to be repaid.

As part of its revival plan, the Jalan Kamrock consortium said last year that it would retain 50 employees from the existing employee pool of Jet Airways.

These employees will be hired on fresh terms, the consortium said.

Jet Airways staff had grown to 200 in number by June, Kapoor said in an interview back then.

Older staff (from before the airline was grounded) comprise more than 60 percent of the current workforce, Ankit Jalan, a board member of the Jalan-Kalrock consortium, said in a statement in November.

Revival hits another hurdle 

Last month, Jet Airways temporarily docked the salaries of some of its staff by up to half, and sent some on leave without pay.

The action came in the wake of the airline’s revival plan hitting yet another hurdle after the Jalan-Kalrock consortium told the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) of its inability to pay additional money to clear staff Provident Fund and gratuity dues of around Rs 250 crore.

On October 21, the NCLAT had directed the consortium to clear employees’ unpaid PF and gratuity dues until June 2019, when the insolvency process was initiated.

The Jalan-Kalrock consortium has said that while it awaits the handover of Jet Airways under the revival process, the longer-than-expected time taken for its completion may result in it having to take some difficult decisions.