M A I N   N E W S

NDA allies ground move on contract jobs in Air-India
Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 16
The setting up of Air-India Charters Limited (AICL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, has hit a serious roadblock with the Shiv Sena and certain other allies of the BJP-led NDA government opposing jobs in the AICL on contractual basis.

Sources in the Civil Aviation Ministry said that after opposition from political parties, specially from the Shiv Sena, the government had put on hold all cabin crew recruitments. There could be a long delay in any decision being taken on the issue, authoritative reports said.

Although some interviews for recruitments for the AICL were carried in July last but the government had now asked the Human Resources (HR) division of Air India to look into the matter before taking any further decision. Till such time the government did not get the view of the airlines’ HR division it would not consider recruiting any employees for the subsidiary, sources said.

The government decided to refer the issue of offering contractual jobs in the AICL to the HR division after a delegation of the Air India Air Crew Employees Association, led by the Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Nirupam met Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.

The delegation had specifically raised the issue of the contractual jobs being offered in the AICL and wanted the ministry of review this. The delegation was apparently in the favour of permanent jobs to be given to the new recruits.

The Air India had earlier taken the decision to have contractual employees for the company as it felt that having a crew based in various cities was more optimum. This would save on the cost of accommodation.

It would help in optimising the use of the cabin crew also. As the crew hired in one city could be used for the Air India flights from that city and could actually do quick turnaround saving on the hotel accommodation and transport for the airlines.

Air India felt that maintaining crew at cities other than Mumbai was the need of the hour. The AICL had planned to recruit about 120 personnel initially on a three-year contract.

Incidentally, in Kerala alone, from where Air India had a large number of flights to the West Asia the airlines spends more than Rs 4 crore per annum on the hotel accommodation for its crew.