Mumbai: The Jet Airways’ pilots union has decided to keep in abeyance its recent directive to its members not to fly with expatriate pilots from May 1.
This comes after talks with the management, and the latter requesting them to not take any extreme step in the interest of passengers and company’s finances. The management also assured the union that the grievances of the pilots would be looked into. The union also felt the need to support the management during the peak season and resolve the issues though dialogue rather than confrontation.
“We have decided to keep our directive in abeyance in the interest of the company and our guests. We want to avoid any disruption to services and the company has assured us to have a dialogue next week. Besides, the company’s anniversary is round the corner and we don’t want to spoil it by our action,” said Captain D. Balaraman, president, National Aviator’s Guild (NAG), the union of Indian pilots of Jet Airways.
The union’s ultimatum came against the backdrop of three expat pilots who allegedly racially abused Indian nationals. While the service of one of the expats, who had threatened an Indian trainer, has been terminated, another expat pilot, who allegedly hurled abuses at a physically challenged passenger and his companion on board a flight, has been de-rostered. Cricketer Harbhajan Singh had recently tweeted this incident. A third pilot has also been de-rostered for alleged racial abuse, the union said.
On April 15, NAG had issued a directive asking trainers not to conduct training of expat pilots and all members not to do line flights with them from May 1, 2017. “The directive was a result of racist comment and physical/verbal abuse by certain expat pilots,” NAG said.
In a circular issued on Saturday NAG said, “The management has conveyed and assured that due process will be followed and suitable action as per company policy would be taken against the concerned expat pilots.”
“Further the holiday season is upon us and we are alive to the fact that our guests may be inconvenienced if flight scheduled were to be upset because of this directive. The NAG committee expects the management to promptly address the issue and accordingly holds the aforementioned directive in abeyance till further notice,” it added.
Meanwhile, as the immediate concern of the pilots has been addressed the pilots said they would take their battle to the court to ensure that no expat pilot is hired by the airline. Jet Airways has currently about 150 expat pilots flying Boeing 737 and ATR planes, and NAG wants all of them to go.
“We are exploring all options to take up the Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation issue through appropriate channels,” NAG said.
