Staff of India’s Jet Airways must back revival or lose perks

As voting got underway for Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int’l) employees to approve the Kalrock-Jalan consortium’s proposal to revive the airline, Business Standard reported that at least 95% of them will have to agree or risk losing the benefits offered to them under the plan.

Staff began voting on the offer on July 5 and the process will continue until August 4. Jet Airways currently has 3,600 employees, compared to 9,000 in June 2019, the newspaper said. Jet Airways ceased operations in April 2019.

According to the offer from the consortium of London-based Kalrock Capital and Dubai-based businessman Murari Lal Jalan, Jet Airways employees would receive, through a welfare trust, a 0.5% stake in the airline and a 76% stake in groundhandling subsidiary Airjet Ground Services.

Staff would be paid INR11,000 (USD147) or INR22,800 (USD305) in cash each, depending on their positions, plus an air ticket voucher worth INR10,000 (USD134), with some also receiving phones, laptops, or iPads allocated via a lottery.

If fewer than 95% of the workers vote in favour, these benefits will lapse, with the 0.5% stake and money earmarked for the cash payments to be given to creditors, according to Business Standard.

One employee told the newspaper that the cash offer is little consolation for the staff who have remained, waiting for the revival. Another claimed that “there is no assurance of a job in the new entity, and moreover if we get selected it will be at lower pay than what we earned in 2019.”