The ground staff of Jet Airways have decided to launch a protest rally on Friday at Siroya Centre, the headquarters of Jet Airways here, demanding payment of salary dues. This comes even as the debt-strapped airline informed the grounding of 10 aircraft on account of non-payment of dues to lessors.

Chairtanya Mainkar, Senior Vice-President of the All India Jet Airways Officers and Staff Association, told BusinessLine : “Over 1,600 people are associated with the association and have not received salaries for the last month. There is no clarity as to when the staff will get the salary, there is no job security or communication from the management as well. Hence, to get clarity on the same, the employees will stage a protest outside the headquarters at 1:30 pm on Friday and then go to the police station to lodge a formal complaint as well.”

On March 5, over 250 ground staff had approached the airline office to get clarity on the salary and operation issues and were assured a solution. Engineers, too, had written a letter to the management seeking clarity on the salary issues. Last week, pilots who haven’t received salaries for over three months, sent a legal notice to the management.

Aircraft grounded

Meanwhile, lessors to the airline grounded 10 aircraft on account of non-payment. While the airline did not respond to a query on the number of aircraft in operation now, according to a DGCA official, only 14 aircraft are operational out of 119.

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