Air India Express Employees Being Marked Sick By Software Glitch Despite Returning To Work

The crew members also met with the airline’s management in a four and a half hours long meeting on Thursday, where both agreed to return to normalcy

Air India Express reinstated all cabin crew members who called in sick to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the carrier. After reprimanding the employees, the airline brought them back and the crew members returned to duty by last Saturday.

However, problems for the carrier didn’t stop as a software glitch in the firm’s scheduling software led to the staff being marked as sick, a release by the Air India Express Employees Union revealed on Sunday. The union informed that the crew has joined back, but are being marked incorrectly due to a technical error, reported ANI.

Further, flights scheduled to depart on Sunday were cancelled three days earlier. “We also express our sincere apologies to the esteemed guests for the inconvenience caused to them,” the union’s release said. To resume normal operations, passengers who had bookings with the airline need to reconfirm.

Meeting With CLC And Senior Management

The Union also met with the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) New Delhi recently to discuss the issues and find a solution. The union informed, “The CLC has conducted marathon proceedings with the representatives of this union and management of the Airlines in a cordial manner and the management agreed to take back the terminated employees forthwith and also resolve all the remaining issues asap. The CLC has adjourned the proceedings to the 28th of May 2024.”

Notably, the crew members also met with the airline’s management in a four and a half hours long meeting on Thursday and both sides agreed to return to normalcy, resulting in the airline reinstating 25 terminated crew members. 

The next meeting is scheduled for May 28 if the employees are dissatisfied with the resolution of their demands. 

Notably, more than 80 flights of the airline were cancelled due to mass sick leaves from crew members, resulting in interruption on both domestic and international flights. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has also asked the carrier to submit a detailed report explaining and resolving the issue.