By IANS,
New Delhi : If the president of the newly formed Jet Airways pilots’ union is to be believed, the reason for some 400 of its members falling “sick” Tuesday, perhaps, was food poisoning.
“We are not on strike. This is an individual decision by each pilot,” said Girish Kaushik, president of the National Aviators Guild, after member pilots reported sick and inconvenienced some 20,000 passengers.
Asked if it was not too much of a coincidence that so many pilots reported sick at the same time, Kaushik told IANS: “We could all have had food poisoning. That’s why we all could have become ill.”
The civil aviation ministry has taken strong exception to what it calls a “wildcat” strike.
“As per the civil aviation requirements, any act on the part of pilots, which may result in last minute cancellation of flights and harassment of passengers, would be treated as an act against the public interest,” the ministry said in a statement.
Home Secretary G.K. Pillai has also written to all state chief secretaries to review the situation and invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act to ensure passengers are not inconvenienced.