Jet Airways laid off nearly 1,100 employees in October 2008 as part of a major cost-cutting exercise to deal with the global slowdown and rising fuel costs. Jet Airways is one of India's largest airlines, with a fleet of 107 domestic aircraft and 82 international routes. The layoffs sparked controversy as employees were fired without notice and lower-level staff seemed disproportionately affected. Questions were raised about how the employees would find new jobs and whether senior management should have also faced pay cuts or layoffs. The case highlights the need for companies to consider their ethical responsibilities to employees and ensure layoff decisions are non-discriminatory and do not endanger livelihoods.

1. Coping with Turbulent Times in the Indian Aviation Industry Jet airways layoff- what kind of hrm? GROUP MEMBERS: AbhijitNaik Anuj Jain HimadriSingha ManojJindal Prasad Deshpande SanjeevBatra Suresh Babu

2. THE CASE The case is about the retrenchment drama that unfolded in one of India’s leading aviation companies, Jet Airways (India) Limited in Oct 2008. More than thousand employees were laid off. It was a part of major Cost-cutting exercise to tackle Global slowdown and price hike of Aviation fuel.

4. A fleet of 107 Domestic aircraft serving 1,009 daily flights.

5. 82 International routings.

6. Total strength of 19000 employees.JET AIRWAYS AS ON OCT 2008

7. The retrenchment drama unfolds….. Oct 16, 2008, Jet announced that it would lay off nearly 1,100 of its staffs to streamline operation. A day after it had already laid off around 800 of its cabin crew members. Simultaneously announced second phase of lay-off of 1100 employees, mainly from departments like flight attendant, cockpit crew etc.

8. Retrenchment drama unfolds…… Amidst great furor and opposition by various organizations and political parties, NareshGoyal , chairman of Jet, reinstated the employees a day later the great emotional drama. November 2008, Jet decided on a 20% cut in the salaries of its pilots, engineers, and some other staffs.

9. Some salient issues…… Employees were FIRED with no PRIOR NOTICE The entire force of unconfirmed staff was being laid off on a 30-day compensation package Company took action only against lower staffs.

11. Why took action only against lower grade staffs?

12. Senior management was very less affected.

15. Company keeps on focusing on customer satisfaction when its own people are so highly dissatisfied.

18. More accountability from top management.

19. The role of HR executive is important to ascertain that people’s interests are not left aside in the race for profits

20. The HR executive to ensure no discrimination in pay cut and lay off.