SC asks Jet Airways to reinstate 169 workers with back wages

New Delhi: In a judgement that will have implications for the resolution of bankrupt Jet Airways, the Supreme Court has asked the grounded airline to reinstate its 169 workers with full back wages.

While quashing the orders of the Bombay High Court and the Central Government Industrial Tribunal that ruled to the contrary, a bench comprising Justices Abhay S Oka and Sanjay Karol said the provisions of the Bombay Model Standing Order for workmen could not have been waived by the debt-laden carrier through fixed-term contracts and the workers were entitled to all the benefits.

"A workman who has worked for 240 days in an establishment would be entitled to be made permanent, and no contract/settlement which abridges such a right can be agreed upon, let alone be binding," the top court ruled.

The judgement came on an appeal by the Bharatiya Kamgar Karmachari Mahasangh, which alleged that the workers, who were temporarily engaged on a fixed-term contract, were treated as temporary by the airline despite completing 240 days of uninterrupted service in terms of the Model Standing Order provided under the Bombay Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Rules, 1959.

Jet Airways argued the workers were not entitled to permanent jobs as the airline union had in 2002 signed an agreement giving up the demand for permanent jobs for other benefits.

Jet Airways, once India's biggest private carrier, stopped operations in April 2019, unable to cope with its financial liabilities. In 2020, its committee of creditors approved a resolution plan submitted by UK's Kalrock Capital and UAE-based entrepreneur Murari Lal Jalan to revive and operate the airline. The consortium has yet to implement the plan.