Mumbai: Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) is again up against Tata Group-owned Air India Express after the airline issued charge sheets against 200 cabin crew members for reporting sick in May 2024 which led to huge number of flight cancellations.
Reacting to Air India Express’ decision, AIXEU termed the airline’s move as unfortunate and unfair labour practice. The Union is affiliated to the RSS.
Shooting a letter to Air India Express chief Aloke Singh, the airline union warned the management that taking such actions against the cabin crew could be detrimental to the interests of the company and its passengers.
Air India Express is yet to release or announce any official comment on the same.
Meanwhile, the Union sources said that the charge-sheet was issued to around Air India Express 200 cabin crew members on June 5, with a deadline of 72 hours to reply.
It may be recalled that around 200 Air India Express 200 cabin crew members went on strike on May 7, to protest against the alleged mismanagement in the airline.
Taking strict action, Air India Express had terminated the services of 25 cabin crew members and issued a warning to others to join or face the same consequences. Later, the Union and Air India Express management held talks and the issue was resolved after the meeting between the representatives of cabin crew members and the airline management at the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in Delhi on May 9.
What AIXEU wrote in its letter to AI Express
“The charge-sheet was issued by the Chief of HR to many of the cabin crew members regarding their sick reports. It is very unfortunate and constitutes unfair labour practice to reopen the case and issue charge-sheets for matters that have already been settled through conciliation. The termination orders of the 25 cabin crew members were also withdrawn during conciliation based on the settlement agreement,” the Union stated in its letter.
“Such actions could be detrimental to the interests of the enterprise and its passengers. Instead, I urge you to seek opportunities for cooperation to strengthen our industrial relations. Pursuing the charge-sheet and initiating punitive action against employees would only lead to unpleasant situations and worsen the already affected industrial relations. It was clearly stated in the last hearing held on May 28 in front of the CLC that no punitive action would be initiated against the employees in this regard,” Requesting the management to refrain from reopening settled issues, AIXEU president K K Vijayakumar said in the letter.
“Additionally, since the issue was settled on May 9, I believe that the employees were available for duty the following day. However, numerous flight cancellations occurred due to data loss from newly introduced software, as no backup was maintained by the concerned department and no training was provided to handle the software.”
Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) raised concerns over charge sheet to around 200 cabin crew of AI Express. The Union warned the airline management saying such decisions could be detrimental to the interests of the company. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
