Air India Express, Unions Spar Over Charge Sheet To Crew

The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) has opposed the distribution of charge-sheets by the airline’s management to approximately 200 cabin crew members who reported sick during last month’s strike, deeming it an unfortunate and unjust labor practice.

The union has sent a letter to Air India Express CEO Alok Singh which cautions the airline about the potential negative repercussions of such actions on the company and its passengers.

The Incident

Early last month, approximately 200 cabin crew members of Air India Express went on a sudden mass leave to protest against alleged mismanagement within the airline, leading to the cancellation of hundreds of flights. In response, Air India Express terminated the contracts of 25 cabin crew members and issued warnings to others, instructing them to return to work or face similar consequences.

The strike was later called off following a conciliation meeting between cabin crew representatives and airline management at the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in Delhi on May 9.

The Letter

The letter states that “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“The termination orders of the 25 cabin crew members were also withdrawn during conciliation based on the settlement agreement,” the Unions president said in the letter.

In the letter, AIXEU President K K Vijayakumar urged the management to refrain from revisiting resolved issues, emphasizing that such actions could harm both the company and its passengers. “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,” he said in the letter. 

The letter further urges cooperation to strengthen industrial relations. The entirety of the matter was deliberated before the Central Labour Commissioner (CLC) on May 9 and was resolved amicably between the management and the union.

He added, “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,” the Union further said.

“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,” it said.

Additionally, the Union pointed out operational shortcomings, attributing flight cancellations to data loss from newly implemented software due to a lack of backup and insufficient training, rather than the fault of cabin crew employees.