Mumbai, Oct. 15: Jobless Jet Airways employees are suddenly being courted — not by headhunters but politicians and trade unions.

“We will hold a meeting with Jet Airways personnel on Thursday and request them to reconsider their decision to lay off the employees,” Raj Thackeray said after over 200 retrenched flight attendants met the rebel Sena leader at his residence this morning.

Raj later threatened to stop all flights of the airline out of Maharashtra if the termination order was not reconsidered. “If they do not agree, not a single flight will be allowed to take off from this city or the rest of this state,” the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief warned.

In Delhi, CPM labour arm Citu issued a statement terming the lay-off “illegal” and called for grounding all flights of the airline.

Angry Jet employees staged a protest outside the airline’s corporate office in suburban Andheri.

“Nobody recruits flight attendants who have not come through private in-flight staff training academies. These institutes charge huge sums. We are middle-class people. Our families have spent hard-earned money or borrowed to get us trained,” said Smita, 22, who joined the airline six months ago.

Activists of the Shiv Sena, the party of Raj’s estranged uncle Bal Thackeray, also joined the protest.

The Citu statement asked the labour ministry to direct the airline to withdraw the “illegal and unwarranted” termination orders.

“The Citu further demands that pending such withdrawal of dismissal orders, (the) government should issue orders for grounding all flights of Jet Airways,” the statement added.