Jet Airways staff association challenges resolution plan before NCLAT

All India Jet Airways' Officers and Staff Association on Thursday said it has filed an appeal before the NCLAT against Jalan-Kalrock consortium's resolution plan for the airline.

In October 2020, the airline's Committee of Creditors (CoC) approved the resolution plan submitted by the consortium of the UK's Kalrock Capital and the UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan. The plan was later cleared by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

Last week, Jet Airways' air operator certificate was revalidated by the aviation regulator DGCA, paving the way for the relaunch of the airline, which was grounded in April 2019 due to financial woes.

"The resolution plan is contingent on many hypotheticals about the use of crucial assets of the former Jet Airways, including its property, flight slots, and most importantly, its workers and employees," All India Jet Airways' Officers and Staff Association President Kiran Pawaskar said in a statement.

In its petition before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT), the association has prayed for complete payments of the gratuity, unpaid wages, privilege leave encashment, bonus from April 2018 to June 2019 and retrenchment compensation to all workers and employees, the statement said.

Among others, the association has demanded that any employee re-hired by the resolution applicant or the Monitoring Committee are paid their gratuity, unpaid wages, privilege leave encashment, bonus and retrenchment compensation as per their entitlements and that any signed document for the waiver/forfeiture of these amounts not be enforced against them.

Currently, the airline, which is expected to restart services in the coming months, is managed by the Monitoring Committee.

Narayan Hariharan, former Senior Vice President of Jet Airways and legal advisor to employees, said the resolution plan is "precariously held together by a vague business plan".

The airline is forcing workers to waive all their statutory rights they are owed, particularly gratuity, privilege leave, unpaid salary and bonus, the association claimed.

The airline was earlier owned by Naresh Goyal and Gulf carrier Etihad. Bogged down by financial woes, the full service carrier shuttered operations in April 2019. Later, a consortium of lenders, led by State Bank of India (SBI), filed an insolvency petition in June 2019 to recover outstanding dues worth over Rs 8,000 crore.