Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots, a body claiming to represent over 790 pilots of Jet Airways, has dragged the government and the Naresh Goyal-promoted carrier to court challenging the six-month notice period required to be served before leaving the airline.
According to the Civil Air Requirement (CAR), pilots have to serve a mandatory six-month notice period before leaving any airline company. Admitting their petition, Justice Sanjiv Khanna has issued notices to the Centre, Director General of Civil Aviation and Jet Airways, directing them to file their replies.
In its petition, Society for Welfare of Indian Pilots (Swip) alleged that many airlines, including Jet Airways, were misusing CAR, which provided an ‘unfair advantage’ to the management, and were using it to change their service conditions.
“Airlines, including Respondent 3 (Jet Airways), for malafide reasons, have sought to misuse the provisions of the impugned notification (CAR) and have imposed a compulsory notice period of six months on pilots,” said Swip in its petition, filed through its firm, Link Legal.
“...(CAR) is being misused by Air Operators, as it provides an unfair advantage to them, who have unilaterally started changing the terms and condition of service of pilots employed and have also started reducing salaries and other emoluments in the garb of recession,” said Swip.
The association further submitted that DGCA had already issued clarification to Jet Airways on April 22 that if there is any alteration/amendment in the service condition, then CAR would not apply.
“However, even after the clarification being issued by DGCA, private airlines, including Jet Airways, have refused to relieve their pilots from service or issue No Objection Certificate and continued to deny the same to pilots,” alleged the association.
They further submitted that CAR was brought in 2005 when there was an aviation boom in the industry and carriers were competing each other to get the available trained pilots.
However, “such circumstances have changed dramatically” in the current economic scenario. Even Jet Airways has reduced operations and stopped in commercially non-viable sectors. “In the present scenario, the terms and condition of employment of the pilots have been drastically altered by the airlines, including Jet, resulting in not only loss of earning of the pilots but also loss of growth opportunities,” it said.
This left the pilots with no option but to resign from the services of such airlines, including Jet Airways and seek better opportunities, it added.
Moreover, they further submitted that DGCA “can issue CAR relating to the operation, use, possession, maintenance of navigation and the said power does not include power to regulate employment of pilots”.
According to CAR of September 1, 2005, a pilot has to give six months to the company until and unless he/she gets a no-objection certificate.
