Mumbai Jet employees hug each other on Friday. (AFP)

Mumbai, Oct. 17: The emotional “father” of the Jet family today personally said sorry to his “children” for the agony caused by the lay-off and denied that a pay cut was in the offing.

“My apology to you for the agony you and your families had to suffer. You are like my children and I will not let you down. We will work together and make Jet into a big company,” one of the probationers quoted Naresh Goyal as telling the group of 500 at the banquet hall of the Hilton in a pre-lunch meeting.

The rest of the 800 cabin crew probationers laid off on Tuesday and reinstated yesterday have dispersed to cities mentioned in their duty roster.

“He (Goyal) explained the financial problems and losses faced by the company, and was very emotional during his speech. When we asked about the possibility of salary cuts by 15 to 25 per cent, he denied it. He said the company would instead try to cut costs by closing new international routes that are not so well-established,” said an employee who was present at the 30-minute address.

Describing himself as the “father of the family”, the Jet chairman had announced the reinstatement around 11.30pm yesterday. He had equated the employees with his 19-year-old daughter Namrata, who is interested in filmmaking and had been a junior assistant to Farhan Akhtar during the making of Don — The Chase Begins.

The party hasn’t stopped for Jet’s young brigade since the dramatic announcement. Jet’s SM Centre hub sprang back to life as hundreds of sacked staff gathered there to celebrate at 2 in the morning.

Jet Airways employees celebrate in Mumbai after being reinstated on Thursday. (Fotocorp)

The employees, who were staring at a bleak future after being retrenched overnight in what was being seen as India’s most sweeping job cut, danced and shouted victory slogans at the same spot where barely 24 hours ago they had staged a protest along with workers of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

“We were very excited on hearing Goyal sir’s announcement on TV. My father, a retired bank employee, was in tears. We began calling each other, landed at the Jet office at 2am and had a blast,” said Spandan Sharma (name changed), a flight attendant terminated on Tuesday. A day later, the company had announced that 1,100 more would be “released”.

The spontaneous celebration was followed by two invitations — one from Thackeray, another from the company — but both at 9am.

Only about 10 employees, along with agitation leader Sameer Dalvi, an ex-Jet employee, went to meet Raj.

Like the majority, Sharma, 22, preferred to go to office, something he had not believed he would do again. “We were welcomed by the HR department with tea and sandwiches, but were not given any reinstatement letters. Instead, we were driven in a bus to Hotel Hilton where Goyal and (executive director) Saroj Datta addressed us,” he said.

Goyal’s address was followed by a lunch of vegetable biryani, paneer tikka, fish amritsari, chicken tikka and gulab jamun.

Race to claim credit

A battle for political one-upmanship has begun on who should get the pat for the turnaround. Both the MNS and the Shiv Sena claimed credit for the change in Jet’s decision.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel joined them, claiming he had called Goyal yesterday and asked him to resolve the issue within a day. “I had called the chairman yesterday morning and also told him that within 24 hours we must find a resolution to this problem. Otherwise we in the ministry would not be happy with the approach of Jet Airways,” he said in New Delhi.