Pilots in Jet see bias for foreign crew

Mumbai: Tired of being given step-motherly treatment vis-a-vis foreign pilots, Jet Airways’ Indian-born pilots have decided to strictly “follow the roster” from Wednesday onwards, which means they will not be available for emergency replacements.
“The management was given a letter today saying that from Wednesday, we will be strictly following the roster,” said a Jet Airways pilot, who added that the Indian pilots’ fight against discrimination has been on for sometime now. Jet Airways has about 630 pilots, of which 200 are expatriates.
If the pilots stick to their stand, it means in the event of a delay or cancellation, if the airline runs out of listed stand-by pilots, the Indian pilots will not come in as replacements.
Said a Jet pilot, “Thirty-four Boeing 737 Indian commanders were to be upgraded to fly on the Boeing 777 this year and 68 in 2008. Moving from a narrow to a wide-bodied aircraft is natural progression and the airline had agreed to it. It took many meetings to get the 34 commanders promoted. But the airline management has clearly stated that next year, the other 68 Indian commanders won’t be promoted as they will be getting foreign commanders.” This, despite the fact that foreign commanders are paid almost double as compared to their Indian counterparts.
The other grievances include denial of equal privileges to Indian and foreign pilots. “The service conditions state that commanders can fly business class. But of late Indian commanders are given economy seats, while the foreign commander of the same rank gets the business seat,” said a pilot.
11/12/07 Manju V/Times of india