Despite 20 flights getting canceled on Sunday, Air Air India Express expects flight services to return to full normalcy by Tuesday. Despite Air India Express agreeing to reinstate the terminated crew members, several flights remained cancelled on Friday and Saturday as well.
The Air India Express crisis started early last week when around 100 international and domestic flights of the airlines were abruptly cancelled after a mass ‘sick leave’ of senior crew members. Sources said that the crew members reported sick to protest against alleged mismanagement at the Tata Group-owned airline.
First Fire, Then Hire
After the slew of cancellations, Air India Express had on Wednesday last week terminated the contract of around 30 employees. However, after talks with crew member unions and the airline management, the airline sent letters reinstating all crew members who had been sacked for taking part in the ‘mass leave’ protests.
In the termination letter sent to one of its employees, the airline stated that an overwhelming number of airline crew members reported to be sick at the eleventh hour. “This clearly points to a pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason,” the letter stated.
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Reason For Protest
The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) has raised concerns about mismanagement and unequal treatment of staff over merger with Air India Express, AIX Connect and Vistara by Tata Group.
The union had written to Tata Group chairman N Chandrasekaran last month and had raised several issues, including the removal of allowances such as HRA, resulting in significant salary cuts despite the airline’s profitability. The letter also highlighted lack of equality in treatment of employees, with internal job postings filled by external employees, acording to a report in The Economic Times.
