New Delhi: Amid a deadlock between employees and the management over revised terms of employment and salary allowances, more than 1,500 Air India pilots have petitioned Ratan Tata — Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, which now owns Air India — to request his intervention in the issue.
The pilots, alleging that they are not being treated with “respect” and “dignity”, have stated in a petition that their concerns are not being heard or addressed by the current human resources (HR) team at Air India.
“We would not have disturbed you had this issue not been this important. But as the Chairman Emeritus of Air India, we believe that your benevolent leadership can help us to find a solution that is fair and respectful to all parties involved,” read the petition, signed by more than 1,500 pilots affiliated with the private airline.
Air India had last week announced a revision in the compensation of flying staff with effect from April 2023. The major internal policy changes, which did not go down well with the employees, include a new wage structure wherein flying staff will be entitled to a fixed salary for 40 hours of flying instead of the 70 hours earlier, besides a change in the rostering policies which pilots say could result in them being on call 24×7.
Earlier, pilots had also warned of “industrial unrest” if coerced to sign the “draconian” terms.
“…terms and conditions are not acceptable to us, and we will contest this travesty using any and all avenues available to us. Our member pilots will not sign this unilateral revised terms of employment and compensation. Any coercive steps or victimisation by the company against our member pilots to sign these draconian terms and compensation will lead to Industrial Unrest,” the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots Guild had said in a joint letter dated 19 April.
The letter was addressed to Suresh Dutt Tripathi, Chief Human Resources Officer at Air India.
However, an Air India spokesperson had said at the time that the airline will continue to engage with the staff directly since “currently there is no recognised union in Air India” and a large number of employees have already signed the new contracts.
In the petition to Tata, the pilots have stated that their “morale is low”, and that they are “concerned that this (policy changes) will have a negative impact” on their ability to perform their duties to the best of their abilities.
“We understand that the challenges facing Air India are complex, and we are committed to working with the company to find solutions that will benefit all stakeholders. However, we feel that our concerns are not being heard or addressed by the current HR team,” the petition added.
In the 19 April letter to the Air India management, pilots’ unions had alleged that the “actual guaranteed money being offered is only for 40 hours”.
The letter went further to mention that the revised wage structure involved an “automatic pay cut” that would kick in “any time a pilot is on leave or is unavailable due to recurrent training requirements or document/licence renewals not to mention any sick leave”.
“The so-called rationalisations of allowances is not in line with any industry practices as projected by HR,” it added.
Pilots’ unions also alleged that the airline wanted to completely absolve itself from the responsibility of providing pilots with a stable roster around which they can plan their lives.
“As per company ‘requirement’ and in the name of ‘business exigency’, pilots are now expected to be on call 24×7, effectively on a perpetual standby. So any family/social commitments or semblance of a work/life balance that pilots may want is now irrelevant and subject to the whims & fancies of company scheduling,” said the letter.
It added, “We are already under a lot of stress due to decades of mismanaged scheduling with an unstable roster with daily/hourly changes and systemic denial of leave, the company now wants to make that the new norm.”
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(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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