Air India Express reinstates 25 fired workers, after protests by crew

10 May 2024 , 11:15 AM

After the management of Tata-owned Air India Express announced that it would reinstate 25 of their coworkers who had been fired earlier this week, the cabin crew decided to return to work late on Thursday, allowing schedules to return to normal.

Up to 100 cabin crew members went on sick leave on Wednesday, leaving hundreds of customers stranded and resulting in more than 90 flight cancellations. This caused disruptions to the carrier’s flights, which have been ongoing since Monday. On Thursday, 85 more flights were canceled.

The low-cost carrier’s management has also given the striking employees the assurance that it will investigate the concerns brought up by the union.

The crew members were let go on Wednesday night for collectively reporting sick, which the management characterised as a “concerted action” to cause disruptions to operations in the termination letters.

Following a conciliation conference presided over by Delhi’s Chief Labour Commissioner on Thursday, the deadlock was resolved.

Approximately 350 flights are conducted daily by Air India Express. Out of these, 120 are destined for Middle Eastern nations. The airline announced that in order to make up for the cancelled flights, Air India, its parent company, will run flights on 20 of its routes.

Before the results of the conciliatory meeting were known, an airline spokesperson said, “We are taking appropriate steps against certain individuals as their actions have caused grave inconvenience to thousands of our guests, while we will continue to engage with our cabin crew colleagues with a commitment to address any concern.”

The president of the Air India Express Employees’ Union, which has about 300 airline employees as members, KK Vijaykumar, told ET that several perks that were previously a part of the workers’ remuneration prior to a merger have been completely eliminated, leading to large salary reductions.

The Tata Group is combining airlines to form a low-cost airline as part of its reorganization of its aviation industry, while Vistara and Air India will fight in the premium market.

Vistara was forced to cancel 25% of its flights last month due to pilots who claimed to be ill and were not thrilled with their increased pay.

Air India Express’s crew received several allowances before to the merger, when the airline only operated flights to West Asian countries. Following the merger, the crew was also compelled to fly domestically. Consequently, several benefits have been eliminated, such as the stopover stipend granted to crew members for an overnight stay in overseas locations.

Members of the cabin crew said that the merger had resulted in a roughly 5% pay cut.

The union had previously complained in writing about airline mismanagement and unequal treatment of employees to Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran and Delhi’s regional labor commissioner.

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