22,000 staff including some 6,000 contractual employees of the now grounded Jet Airways are slowly coming to terms with the reality of the uncertainty that awaits them in the future. Many who have worked with the company for decades, some right from day one are now left without a livelihood and months of unpaid salaries.
Neither the company nor the lenders have given any assurance to the troubled staff members on how and when their due salaries will arrive.?
BCCL
Even as the lenders struggle to find a new owner for the airline, a senior pilot has written to the management, accusing them of keeping the employees in the dark over the turn of events.
Sudhir Gaur, a 26 year veteran with Jet Airways, in a letter to CEO Vinay Dube has demanded answers to what transpired leading to the suspension of service.
BCCL
"At this stage, we expect nothing less than the facts of how we got to 'temporarily suspending operations' of this airline which 'us employees' started 26 years back", he wrote, adding that "Ironically, our first B737 arrived in India exactly 26 years ago, April 18, 1993, probably coinciding with the last flight taxing in when we suspended operations on 17th (April) night."??
Gaur, a senior captain, who has been with Jet Airways since its inception, has further demanded that "We await the facts and timelines of what conspired and who failed us."
BCCL
Meanwhile, there is some help coming in the way of at least some of the Jet Airways staff as other carriers like Spicejet, which has hired 500 employees and Air India which have shortlisted 150 Jet cabin crew members.
Others from non-aviation fields also have come forward to help Jet Airways staff with job offers.?