The Hindu Business Line : Budding careers get a taste of the harsher side

The pain and despair of those grounded was distinct among the scores of Jet Airways cabin crew probationers who were outside the airline’s office in Andheri.

And, more such pain is in the offing as Jet Airways said this was the beginning of a staff pruning exercise across all activities of the company.

Any semblance of protest died down as there was no senior official on call.

Many were close to tears, wondering what to do as they have been hardly been employed for 10 months.

A number of them said they were told late on Monday night and on Tuesday that the company had decided to terminate their services and they would be eligible for a month’s salary while parting.

The blow was severe especially to those who had paid a high rental advance for accommodation, not to mention what their landlords would say if they wanted to vacate all of a sudden.

“Each of us has paid close to Rs 1.5 lakh rental deposit for accommodation. What do we tell our landlords and parents? Definitely this is not the way to retrench your staff,” said a teary-eyed girl from Himachal Pradesh.

Many of the ousted were in their late teen and early twenties, who had joined either directly after higher secondary or dropped out of college to take up a career in aviation.

They were willingly to forgo their flight allowance and stay content with the basic pay which they said was Rs10,200 a month. The flight allowance is Rs 350 an hour and each of them get to fly approximately 66 hours a month. In all, the total take home for a cabin crew member is around Rs 29,000, they said.

As the retrenched staffers were huddled in deliberations, a few among them said they have been summoned by the Shiv Sena top-brass. The group urged their colleagues to come to Shivaji Park and assured them that the Sena would render justice to them.

There were reports that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray had extended support to the employees who had lost their jobs.

Late evening, Shiv Sena volunteers raised slogans in front of the airline office demanding that the management take back the sacked employees.

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