Jet Airways Reverses Decision on Staff Cuts

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. October 22, 2008

OCTOBER 17, 2008. The boss of Jet Airways, Naresh Goyal said he has scrapped plans to lay off 1,900 employees because their tears caused him sleepless nights.

All 800 employees at Jet Airways who had already been laid off were called back to work Friday -- just 48 hours after they were told to go by the airline, citing large losses. Jet said earlier this week it would sack 1,900 probationary employees, marking the first mass layoffs in the formerly booming Indian aviation sector.

"I could not sleep at night. I was mentally disturbed when I saw tears in their eyes. I apologise for all the agony you went through," Naresh Goyal told a news conference in Mumbai late Thursday.

He said he had made a "personal decision... without any external pressure." owever, on Friday, India's Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel claimed credit for Jet's U-turn. Speaking in New Delhi, Patel said he had told Goyal that "in 24 hours, we must find a resolution to this problem otherwise we in the ministry would certainly not be very happy with the approach of Jet Airways."

Meanwhile state-run carrier Air India is considering allowing 15,000 workers to take up to five years' unpaid leave as it battles the downturn.