Letter To Minister of Civil Aviation From Air India Pilots
And the government is celebrating 100 years of civil aviation in India. What abyssmal depths have a few bureaucrats ,politicians and a self serving management brought Air India down to !
Here's a reality check on an airline that was created by pilots and now blatantly mistreats its frontline employees.
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Without Prejudice
Ref No: IPG/
Date: 14 Feb 2011
To,
1. Shri. Vayalar Ravi,
Hon’ble Union Minister of Civil Aviation,
Ministry of Civil Aviation,
New Delhi
2. Shri. Praful Patel,
Hon’ble Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises,
Ministry for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises,
New Delhi
3. Shri. Mallikarjun Kharge,
Hon’ble Union Minister for Employment and Labour,
Ministry for Employment and Labour,
New Delhi
Subject: Culture of Lawlessness ,Oppression and Mistreatment of Pilots in erstwhile Air India
Sir,
Over the last few months the management of Air India has adopted a hostile and extremely partisan approach towards the pilots of erstwhile Air India, viz. members of the IPG. The management has repeatedly discriminated against, mistreated and even endangered the lives of pilots of erstwhile Air India.
The following are instances of the above:
1.Fraudulent Amendment of Air Safety Regulations Resulting In Grave Danger To The Lives of Pilots and Passengers:
Rules and regulations meant to reduce pilot fatigue and the probability of human error related air accidents – known as FDTL regulations- are routinely flouted by Air India. The company often claims that it has verbal waivers of these critically important rules from the Government and declines to provide proof when pilots demand the same. Pilots are then forced to operate flights under coercion and fear. On one recent occasion, media reports proved that Air India officials had fraudulently amended a part of these rules in an attempt to force exhausted pilots to fly. Such criminal malpractices regularly continue in Air India.
2.Discrimination in payment of Wages:
The company, whilst routinely deferring the payment of monthly dues to Indian employees, citing a liquidity crunch- pays all foreigners, including pilots and senior executives on time, in foreign accounts.
However, all the Indian employees are subsequently paid all their monthly dues on a specific revised date, while the pilots of erstwhile Air India are not. They are only paid a small fraction initially and the remainder is released in small installments over a period of several weeks resulting in hardship and uncertainty.
This discrimination has been occurring on a regular basis. All written representations, made to the management regarding this issue, remain unanswered.
Kindly note, that while all other sections of employees were paid all dues for January 2011, on 14 February 2011, the pilots of erstwhile Air India have only been paid a part of their emoluments. This latest example highlights the partisan attitude of the management officials.
Clearly, a section of the Air India management harbors a bias and ill will against the pilots of erstwhile Air India.
3.Stagnation in training Indian pilots in order to continue the employment of foreign pilots at exorbitantly higher costs:
For the last several years, Air India has justified the recruitment of foreign pilots, who are paid higher and work a lesser number of days, citing a shortage of trained pilots. While these foreign pilots have been employed for over 5 years, the company has not made any efforts to replace them with Indians, by training our own experienced and qualified first officers (co-pilots) as commanders.
In an attempt to expedite pilot training, many senior first officers (copilots) were assigned from Air India to Air India Express- the low cost subsidiary of Air India. However, due to gross mismanagement - especially in the training department, the training of these pilots has come to a virtual standstill. In a number of cases pilots have been on ground in excess of one year- resulting in massive losses to the company.
As a result of this stagnation in training, the company has perpetuated an artificial shortage of commanders (pilots). This is then cited as an excuse for the continued employment of foreign pilots. We strongly suspect some officials have a vested financial interest through the continued employment of foreign pilots - through recruitment agencies based on foreign shores.
It is a cruel irony that while the Indian taxpayers’ money is being sought to bail out Air India and its subsidiaries – foreign pilots are continually given preference over Indians. We have repeatedly highlighted this issue to the management and even suggested a number of remedial measures to expedite training. The management has neither responded to our letters nor taken any cognizance of our inputs.
As a last resort we had also written to the Independent Directors on the Air India Board, citing the financial implication of the stagnation in training of commanders.
5. Harassment of Pilots In case of Inability to Operate flights due to Sickness/Ill Health :
Over the last 7 months, officials of Air India’s Operations Department have been harassing pilots who are unable to illegally operate flights due to illness. In the event of legitimately availing sick leave, pilots are being threatened with disciplinary action and huge financial penalties. As a result a number of pilots are being coerced into concealing their illnesses and are being made to operate flights even when they are medically unfit to do so.
The actions of a few misguided officials of Air India’s Operations Department have created a potentially hazardous situation endangering the lives of passengers who fly Air India.
We have made a number of written representations to the Air India Management and to the DGCA. However, we have not received responses from any of the agencies.
Infact, we were alarmed to note that misleading information was recently communicated in response to queries raised on this issue at the Rajya Sabha.
It is clear that the management is adopting a hostile attitude towards the IPG and is now resorting to unconstitutional means. It appears that the Air India management is intentionally provoking industrial unrest, in order to deflect attention from their criminal mismanagement of Air India.
As is evident, we have consistently sought to amicably resolve all these outstanding issues despite the hostile approach of the management which has been completely unresponsive. It appears that the patient, reasoned approach of the IPG has been construed as a weakness.
We thus humbly seek your urgent and immediate intervention to resolve these issues within an acceptable time frame, failing which lawful proceedings calling for strike action will have to be initiated. It will be appreciated that precious human lives, valuable national resources and the very survival of Air India are at stake, while the clock is rapidly ticking away.
Yours truly,
Mr. Jeetendra Awhad,
President
CC: Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation
CC: Secretary, Ministry for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
CC: Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment
CC: Chairman and Managing Director, Air India Ltd
CC: Independent Directors, Members of the Board, Air India Ltd
CC: Director – Personnel, Air India Ltd
CC: Director – Finance, Air India Ltd
CC: Executive Director – Industrial Relations, Air India Ltd
CC: Executive Director – Operations, Air India Ltd
CC: Assistant Labour Commissioner – Central, Mumbai
CC: All IPG Members