Less than 48 hours after Jet Airways announced the retrenchment of 1,900 employees, the airline decided to reinstate all the employees.
Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal, in the late evening press conference on Thursday, requested all the sacked employees to come back to work from Friday.
"I apologise for the trauma which the sacked employees have gone through in the last two days. The company is like my family and so are the employees. As the father of the family, I cannot see unhappy faces. My conscience does not allow me to see my employees worried."
Stating that he had not taken the decision under any political pressure, Naresh Goyal said that the management of the company took the decision of sacking the employees due to financial woes that the entire industry is facing. Now it is my decision alone to take back all the employees."
"Nobody, including my wife, is involved. All the employees are my family, I cannot see tears in their eyes. I have nothing to do with Kingfisher, the decision is not relate to the alliance we have."
"The management," he said, "will have to understand the issue as it is about the welfare of the employees who have been hired by the company. The management may not like my decision, but I have made it. We cannot bring economics, mathematics, figures and money in this issue," he added.
Goyal said he took the decision from his heart as he "could not sleep for last two days. For me economics cannot be the only important factor and I will go ahead with my conscience."
Distancing himself from the decision that provoke sharp protest from the employees and some political parties Goyal said, "The management has decided it and when I read about it I saw tears in the eyes of their eyes, I decided on my own to call them back."
"There is no internal or external pressure. As a family we will decide how to fly and keep the airline offload," reiterated.
Asked about Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray threat that he would not allow Jet to fly from Mumbai, Goyal said: "I have not talked to anybody. It does not matter what anybody says. I have not even asked my wife," an emotionally choked Goyal said.
Jet-government deal for bailout?
However, industry sources fell that Goyal has taken the decision of reinstating the sacked employees after speaking with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.
The sources claimed that private airlines, including Jet and Kingfisher, had already struck a deal with the government to get a Rs 4,700-core (Rs 47 billion) bailout package to help them stay afloat.
Sources said that the government (read Praful Patel) had linked the bailout package to the reinstatement of sacked employees, which was why Jet Airways had decided to take back the sacked employees.
