Jet Airways employees send legal notice over dues
The All India Jet Airways Officers and Staff Association has sent a legal notice to the monitoring committee and resolution professional of Jet Airways to initiate payment of pending provident fund and gratuity dues as directed by the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal in October.
According to the NCLAT order, the monitoring committee of Jet Airways had to compute the pending dues to workmen and employees of Jet Airways within one month from October 21 and communicate the same to the Jalan-kalrock consortium, the winning bidder of Jet Airways. The total dues are expected to be to the tune of ₹250 crore.
“The Jet staff association has sought compliance with the NCLAT order and sought no sale of assets till payment of gratuity. Failure entails legal action,” Narayan Hariharan, former senior vice president of Jet Airways and legal adviser to the association,
said.
“We would like to ensure all steps to get justice for our members and all sections of the employees,” the association’s president Kiran Pawaskar said.
The NCLAT order directed the Jalan-kalrock consortium to make payment of unpaid provident fund and gratuity dues to the workmen till June 20, 2019. “It is made clear that full payment
of provident fund would be of that unpaid part of provident fund, which has not been deposited by the Corporate Debtor (Jet Airways) in the EPFO,” the order had stated.
The NCLAT further directed the chairman of the monitoring committee, erstwhile Resolution Professional Ashish Chhawchharia, to compute the payments to be made to workmen and employees within a month from the order and communicate the same to the successful resolution applicant, i.e. Jalan-kalrock Consortium to take steps for payment. However, the consortium has not clarified whether it will make this payment or not.
According to the approved resolution plan, the Jalan-kalrock consortium had proposed a total cash infusion of ₹1,375 crore, including ₹475 crore for payment to stakeholders from this.
The remaining ₹900 crore was to be infused for capital expenditure and working capital requirements.
So far, the consortium has deposited ₹150 crore as bank guarantees and has indicated that it will not make any further payments before the ownership of the airline is transferred by the lenders to the consortium. However, the lenders are insisting that the consortium makes cash payments to the creditors and fulfil pre-requirements for launching an airline before the transfer of ownership, Mint has reported. The resolution plan further stated that the winning bidder has to make an upfront payment of ₹185 crore to the financial creditors within 180 days from the effective date, according to senior officials at Jet Airways.
The matter is expected to gain clarity at the upcoming hearing at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on November 29.
In April 2019, Jet Airways, a full-service airline, shut down operations due to severe financial difficulties. The NCLT approved Jalan-kalrock’s resolution plan on June 22, 2021, following an insolvency process that began in June 2019.
The winning bidder of Jet Airways, the Jalan-kalrock consortium, consists of United Arab Emirates-based non-resident Indian Murari Lal Jalan, who will hold shares in Jet Airways in his personal capacity. The consortium also includes Florian Fritsch, who will own shares through his investment holding company Kalrock Capital Partners Ltd.