Air India Employees Seek Status Quo on Benefits Post Privatisation

Air India pilots’ associations has asked its members to maintain the printed weekly offs and not to change them. “You are hereby directed to maintain CMS Printed Weekly Offs and Not to change your Printed Weekly Offs. This is for your kind information and strict compliance Contract co-pilots do not come under the purview of this directive Members are advised to contact office bearers in case of any doubts or clarification”, the Indian Pilots’ Guild and Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association said in a joint directive to Air India pilots.

Earlier, the Indian Pilots’ Guild and Indian Commercial Pilots Association had directed Air India pilots not to give any extension on “Flight Time”, “Flight Duty Time” or “Landing” till further notice.

In a letter to their members, the associations said that the hostile work environment prevailing in the company for the last few months has significantly increased the mental pressure on pilots. “Active mitigation is now unavoidable to keep flight operations safe,” the letter said.

Informing the management of their decision, the Air India pilots said in letter to R.S.Sandhu, Director (Operations), Air India, “This is to inform you that we will no longer extend unconditional cooperation while the top management continues to mock the dignity of our profession”.

In a related development, the Air India Employees Union has written to the Civil Aviation Ministry and the company stating that the Charter of Demands (CoD) of Air India has been kept pending since January 2007.

“Therefore, the same should be settled before privatisation/disinvestment and the arrears should be paid to all employees”, the union said.

AIEU has also demanded that 25 per cent of PLI arrears pending since July 2012 should be paid immediately.

“In addition, the welfare facilities such as passage, housing colony, transport, canteen in case of privatisation of Air India should be continued and status quo should be maintained,” the Union said.

“All the issues mentioned in the letter are of extreme importance to the employees of Air India and require urgent attention,” the Union said.

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