Summary:
In a decision that has created commotion within the national carrier, Air India dismissed 48 pilots who resigned last year but withdrew their resignations within the six months notice period time as per rules.
The pilots were employed in flying the Airbus 320 fleet of the airline.
.
In a decision that has created commotion within the national carrier, Air India dismissed 48 pilots who resigned last year but withdrew their resignations within the six months notice period time as per rules.
The pilots were employed in flying the Airbus 320 fleet of the airline.
The withdrawal of resignations was accepted earlier only to be revoked suddenly on Thursday night.
Their services have been terminated with immediate effect.
In the termination letters, Air India has cited financial constraints and the impact of Covid-19 on the commercial functioning of the company for the decision taken.
The letters state, “The current operations are a small fraction of pre-COVID level and is unlikely to increase in the near foreseeable future.
The Company is incurring huge net losses and does not have the financial ability to pay.”
Some of the sacked pilots flew on Friday not knowing their services were terminated last night itself.
Indian Commercial Pilots` Association (ICPA) has now written a terse letter to Chairman & Managing Director of Air India, Rajiv Bansal, seeking "urgent intervention against illegal terminations of pilots".
"We have only recently written to you bringing to light the bias and excesses of the personnel department towards pilots.
The ink is barely dry on that letter and the Personnel Department is once again running amok, breaking all rules and the Law of the land.
Yesterday night, around 50 pilots have received illegal termination letters from Personnel Department in blatant violation of Company’s Operation Manual and service rules," the Pilots` body said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Pilots who tendered their resignations as far back as July 2019 but later withdrew them well within the mandatory 6 months’ notice period have nevertheless been relieved from service suddenly starting from 10 p.m.