Jet wants employees to take voluntary pay cut by Dec 15

MUMBAI: With losses mounting by the day, private carrier Jet Airways has reportedly asked its employees to take a voluntary pay cut and will wait till December 15 for their response.

The carrier, which fired 1,900 employees in October only to reinstate them under pressure from various quarters, has made the request to pilots, cabin crew and engineering staff, a source in the airline said on the condition of anonymity.

"Chairman (Naresh Goyal in an e-mail earlier this week) has asked the employees to take a pay cut volountarily and the management has given its employees time till December 15 for a decision," the source said.

It is, however, not clear what the airline proposes to do if the employees do not agree for a voluntary pay cut. A Jet Airways spokesperson, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue.

Jet operates a full-service airline as also a budget carrier - JetLite. Goyal had also announced earlier that his airline would cooperate with Vijay Mallya-promoted Kingfisher Airlines to cut costs.