The Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) called out the airline for allegedly issuing a chargesheet to nearly 200 cabin crew members for taking sick leaves during the strikes last month. The union called the airline’s decision an unfortunate and unfair labour practice.
Issuing a letter to Alok Singh, the Air India Express chief, on Sunday, the Union cautioned the airline management against undertaking such actions, stating these could harm the interests of the carrier and its passengers.
Citing sources in the Union, PTI reported that the carrier issued the charge sheet to nearly 200 cabin crew members on June 5 and gave them a timeline of 72 hours to file their responses.
The charge sheet was issued by the HR Chief to several crew members regarding their sick leaves. The letter from the Union read, “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 The termination orders of the 25 cabin crew members were also withdrawn during conciliation based on the settlement agreement.”
Union President, K K Vijayakumar, via the letter said, “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.”
The Union head stressed that the matter has already been settled before the Central Labour Commissioner (CLC) and the airline agreed to not undertake any punitive measures against the employees in the issue. Vijayakumar said that the employees resumed their duties after the settlement and the flight cancellations afterwards occurred due to a software glitch. “This operational lapse is being misrepresented as the fault of the cabin crew employees,” the letter read.
Notably, about 200 crew members of the carrier reported sick earlier last month as a form of protest against the alleged mismanagement in the airline. This led to mass flight cancellations and delays. As such, the management of Air India Express terminated 25 cabin crew members and warned others of the same fate if they failed to resume their duties.
The strike was finally called off three days later after a resolution was reached between the representatives of the crew members and the airline management at the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) in New Delhi on May 9.