Air India Pilots Claim Airline Imposing Retrogressive Service Conditions

Air India’s pilot bodies have accused the airline management of implementing “regressive” changes to their service conditions without prior consultation. The Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) sent a joint letter to Air India’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Suresh Dutt Tripathi, on Tuesday, stating that such actions were creating “industrial unrest” and “shattering employee confidence” in the current management. According to an unnamed source, Air India recently reduced the limit of privilege leave accumulation from 300 to 60 days annually.

The IPG represents wide-body aircraft pilots, while the ICPA represents pilots who operate the narrow-body fleet of Air India. The letter emphasized that the unions had supported the company in good faith for over a year, but despite their cooperation, the management continued to make unilateral changes to their service conditions without following the appropriate procedures.

Air India

The letter also stated that existing bilaterally agreed service conditions could not be modified without issuing a notice under Section 9A of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, and following the prescribed procedure. Air India declined to comment on the matter. In January last year, Tata Group took over Air India.

The management of Air India is being accused by the pilots’ unions of disregarding their efforts to establish a positive working environment and fair working conditions. The unions have engaged with the management several times on this matter.

In a recent virtual interaction, the company allegedly avoided answering important questions posed by the pilots. The unions are still waiting for answers to these questions, as promised by the management during the session.

According to a letter from the pilots, on March 22, Air India emailed individual pilots announcing a forcible capping of privilege leave accumulation to 60 days, as well as the liquidation of any additional leave over and above this limit. The pilots argue that the management cannot unilaterally change their leave quota, accumulation, and encashment in the name of an “organizational announcement” or “policy.”

Air India has responded by stating that it is reviewing its leave policy to align it with prevailing market practices. However, the pilots’ unions argue that the management should not make changes to their working conditions without engaging with the unions and following ethical practices.

Despite appeals from the pilots, the airline management has not engaged with the unions as actively as other Tata companies do, according to the letter.

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