Over 22,000 employees of Jet Airways — including pilots, cabin crew, technicians and ground staff — are staring at unemployment with the airline shutting down, but help is pouring in from various quarters.
For one, rival airlines are hiring in a big way. While low cost carrier Spicejet has hired 500 employees of Jet as part of its plans to induct more aircraft in its fleet soon, Air India has short-listed 150 Jet cabin crew members.
“We are giving first preference to those who have recently lost their jobs due to the unfortunate closure of Jet Airways,” said Spicejet CMD Ajay Singh.
Amit B Wadhwani, a former Jet executive who now runs a Mumbai-based real estate consultancy Sai Estate Consultants, has issued a press release saying his company is willing to offer jobs to the staff of his former employer. His company has also listed out the posts for which Jet employees can apply.
Salome Peters, the HR head of Sai Estate Consultants, told BusinessLine the company has already started receiving applications from airline employees.
Meanwhile, Twitterati, who routinely come to the rescue when disaster strikes, are now out to help Jet staff, too.
On Friday, K Srinivasamurthy (@ksmkkbookscom), Director of Productivity and Quality Publishing, put out a tweet offering jobs in his organisation.
“Happy to offer two Jet Airways employees opportunities in Customer Relations in my office... Please DM me for more info Location Chennai,” he said.
A tangible ‘thanks’
Srinivasamurthy, known as ‘Cheenu’ on Twitter, told BusinessLine he regularly travelled on Jet for nearly 25 years.
“I have enjoyed good service from them, whether it is ground staff or flight attendants. I am really impressed by their commitment and training. It is one way of saying ‘thank you’ in a tangible way,” he said.
The HR head of Jet contacted him after fellow Twitter users brought this to the notice of the airline, he said. No employee had approached him at the time of filing this report.
Changing course
Amith Prabhu (@amithpr), Founding Dean of the Mumbai-based School of Communication and Reputation, put out a tweet offering an interest-free education loan for Jet employees to do a full-time postgraduate programme in his institute. “Let them benefit from it, and get jobs in PR and communication in the future,” he told BusinessLine over phone.
He said he struggled to reach his home town Mangaluru to cast his vote because the Jet flight he had booked in was cancelled. “I was struggling because the flight was cancelled. I wondered how much the employees must be struggling with no jobs,” he said.
Asked about the response to his tweet, Prabhu said many people reached out to him, offering support to people who are in need of it. Others offered monetary help for interested candidates. The HR head of Jet contacted him and sought details, he added.
Kamal Karanth, co-founder of Xpheno, a specialist staffing firm, said social media is a good tool to reach out with. While entrepreneurs have the flexibility to offer a few opportunities, large corporates cannot do this as they are bound by various rules and regulations, he said.
Karanth wondered about the number of Jet employees going for such offers. “There are certain benefits that you may not get in these enterprises. What I realised after interviewing certain people is that they want job security. Not many of them are willing to work in smaller companies,” he said.
A Jet source said the airline is also working on an outplacement process and is in talks with various companies. However, it has not made announcements as it is still working on the resurrection of the airline, the source added.
There was also some curiosity on why Kingfisher Airlines staff did not find similar support when their company closed down. “It’s wonderful to see the support towards the employees of @jetairways which I did not see as much when Kingfisher shut down. Did we fail those employees?” said Deepa Dey (@ddey67).
(With inputs from our Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru bureaus)
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