<p”>Air India Express, yesterday, became the latest airline from the Tata group stable that saw its operations rocked because of about 100 senior cabin crew members (who are usually designated as the lead cabin crew on a flight). The airline operates over 350 flights a day, and about 90 flights saw disruptions out of these. Previously, in April 2024, Vistara had to cancel flights because pilots went on mass sick leave.
Air India Express issues
<p”>Air India Express cabin crew claimed they are feeling discontent because of issues emerging from its merger with AirAsia India. The Air India Express Employees Union, a recognised union, that claims to represent around 300 cabin crew personnel, including senior ones, stated that mishandling of affairs has deeply affected staff morale.
<p”>The Union, in a letter sent to N. Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata group, claimed employee terminations, nepotism, flouting of the Tata Code of Conduct, and loss of various allowances which were a part of the employees prior to the merger. You can read their letter here.
As a matter of fact, they even took their issues to the Regional Labour Office, where the group was asked to enter a reconciliation process with the employees to address their greviances. Seems that did not happen so far.
Air India Express CEO explains the issues on hand
In a message posted on an internal bulletin board, CEO Aloke Singh explained that the disruptions caused by crew reporting sick caused cascading cancellations across the network. There is a meeting scheduled between crew members and himself on the evening of May 9, 2024. Here is the note he wrote.
The airline will have to consequently run a curtailed schedule over the coming days to be able to bring the schedule back on track. As of May 9, 2024, Air India Express will operate 283 flights, with Air India replacing them on 20 flights to support operations. Air India Express will cancel 85 flights on May 9. This information is from a media statement released at 1:00 PM by the airline.
Air India Express sends termination notice to crew
In a take no prisoners approach mindset, Air India Express also decided that they were not going to be held hostage to this situation. In a late night move, the airline sent out termination notices to about 25 cabin crew members who participated in this pre-mediated “sick leave” protest. The others have been advised to return to work by 4 PM on May 9, 2024.
Whichever side of this debate you are on, you got to realise, everyone loses in this situation. The employees seem more worried about the contract someone else in their organisation was offered than their own (grass is greener on the other side). They also see a loss of allowances given Air India Express is no longer a pure-play international operation. The employer sees a loss of face and is taking a heavy handed approach in this situation to bring everyone in line. The passengers are being offered refunds instead of getting them to their destination.
Bottomline
Air India Express is witnessing employee unrest from their senior cabin crew, who are stating that the airline is taking away their allowances, engaging in mismanagement and also fired some employees within the two year period (when no terminations were promised by the Government of India). On May 8, they staged protest by reporting sick. The airline has terminated the services of some of these employees. They are offering a free reschedule or a complete refund of the ticket to those affected by the cancellations.
What do you make of the current troubles at Air India Express?
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What are the trade Union rules in India?
Action like this in the west (Unsanctioned industrial action against the employer) would almost certainly lead to immediate termination on basis of breach of contract and breach of trust.
The basic principle is that if you take industrial action, you have to warn the employer and abide by the statutory notice period, etc.
The actions of the AIX crew clearly show some sort of pre-meditation and if they have not followed the legislative process to take industrial action, they have broken their contracts and HR policy.
The kicker is that disrupting almost 25% of the entire daily schedule can easily be argued as Gross Misconduct on behalf of the employees.
Hey Dev,
While I see where you are coming from, it seems like apparently the labor commissioner did not find anything illegal about the actions of the trade union..
No trade union anywhere in the world takes permission from the company for their demands..
Obviously no company management in the world would give permission to any trade union to agitate
@ashish interesting that the Labour commission found nothing wrong, which to me is surprising with what seems like an obvious industrial action event.
The trade Union laws in the UK (where I reside) are not about seeking permission but notifying the employer by following the right processes and timelines established in legislation.
(Other countries are clearly more employee friendly in taking wildcat action!)
@Ashish, @Dev, it is not that the Labour Commissioner found anything wrong or not. The goalpost was moved. The Terminations meant the discussions were no longer about solving their demands, it was about solving for the lost jobs. They were never going to fire them for good, they knew that once this would happen, the HR discussion would move from allowances and everything else to, give these people their jobs back. That is standard negotiation tactic. Let’s see what the workmen now have to fire back with.
@Dev, for a planned strike, a 21 day notice has to be served.