Jet Airways to hold talks with pilots

By Aniruddha Basu

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Jet Airways will hold talks with pilots on Friday in an attempt to end a stand-off over the sacking of four pilots that has forced the airline to cancel hundreds of flights, a union representative said.

More than half of the airline's 760 pilots, banned from striking without informing the airline's management in advance, have reported sick since Tuesday, forcing the cancellation of flights and affecting at least 14,000 passengers.

The strike is seen as an example of touchy labour relations where archaic labour laws place myriad limits on hiring and conditions for retrenchment, hurting competitiveness and leading to worker unrest.

"We will have a reconciliation talk with the management in the labour commissioner's office in Delhi tomorrow," Capt. Girish Kaushik, President of the National Aviators Guild, a Jet Airways pilots' union, said in Mumbai.

The labour ministry intervened on Thursday and asked both parties to come to the nation's capital to resolve the crisis.

The pilots say they went on mass leave after four of their colleagues were sacked because they were trying to get the management to recognise their newly formed union.

Jet said the four were fired for indiscipline and called the mass absence of pilots a "simulated strike".

"The problem would be solved immediately, all I want is the four boys back on board," Kaushik told reporters.