(This story originally appeared in on May 10, 2019)

The Regional Provident Fund Commissioner’s office has issued a notice to the Jet Airways for not depositing provident fund (PF) of employees since March 2019 and directed the airline management to pay up immediately. The notice, a copy of which is in possession of Mirror, was issued by assistant provident fund commissioner (compliance) Dilip Rathod, who said he had sent his inspector to the Jet Airways office but no payment was done. “As per our records, Jet Airways has 13,839 employees,” said Rathod, adding, “We will give money to employees as claims come. If anyone needs advance, we can give that as well.”Meanwhile, the PF commissioner has also warned Jet Airways that they will start inquiries under Section 7 of the Provident Fund and Misc Act, 1952, and also register an FIR with the police under sections 406 and 409 of the IPC. NCP leader Kiran Pawaskar who heads trade unions of the Jet Airways said, “I had met Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve expressing a lot of apprehensions and it was forwarded to the Economic Offences Wing . On Thursday, some staffers were called for registering the statement. Naresh Goyal and the SBI representative must also come to the conciliation hearing to the Labour and PF Commissioner’s office. They must take a quick decision about giving PF share immediately.”A day after the protest by Shiv Sena-backed Bharatiya Kamgar Sena at Mumbai airport, the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner had issued the conciliation notice on Thursday to Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube and Suryakant Mahadik, President of BKS, summoning them for a hearing on May 13 at the Central Labour Institute.A Jet Airways pilot said, “The worst condition is of couples working for Jet where PFs of both husband and wife are affected.” Activist Anjali Damania, however, doesn’t find it surprising that Jet has not deposited the PF money. “This has now become a routine with a lot of corporates,” she said.The activist, who has been fighting for the rights of employees of various airline companies, said, “What amazes me is the delay by the Provident Fund office. If the PF money was not deposited from the month of March, the show-cause notice should have been sent within 15 days. The news of Jet Airways default was floating for quite some time and there should have been an immediate action from the PF office against the management and Naresh Goyal and their passports should have been impounded.”When contacted, Jet Airways spokesperson refused to comment.