In the relief of the 400 terminated Spicejet employees, the Bombay High Court ordered that the airline company can’t hire contractual employees till February 8, through any agency. During the hearing, Justice R.V Ghuge asked the company to submit a list of names of the employees by February 5, who were appointed on a fixed-term contract basis for two to ten years. 

According to the order, the Court heard both Spicejet and All India SpiceJet Staff and Employees Association for quite some time. The latter submitted that employees were terminated on January 1, despite the status quo order passed by the Central Government Industrial Tribunal, Mumbai on December 29.

As per a report carried out by the Times of India, the company said in its defense that the employees were not terminated but their contracts had expired. However, the HC noted, “Insofar as the contention of the management that Section2(oo)(bb) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 would be applicable to the case of these workmen, I am afraid that when these workmen have been working, though on contracts of service, for tenures of 24 months under each contract, for about 8-9 years, Section 2(oo)(bb) would have no application.”

On the other hand, the employees noted that though they were fixed terms employees, their contracts were extended over years and thus, the same must be continued. 

Justice Ghuge said, “until further orders, the respondent-union would not precipitate the issue by filing any application for execution of the impugned interim order.”