Government and the various unions of Air India Ltd are at odds regarding the privatisation of the airline. There are no plans as for now for safeguarding the interests of employees after the privatisation. A meeting was held on October 14, 2019, which comprised of various union leaders appearing for pilots, officers and engineers. In the meeting, the issue of governments proposed privatisation plan was the key issue.
The general secretary of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) said that it is pretty clear that most of the current perks of working in the airline will be gone after the privatisation takes place.
Job Guarantee of Employees Will Be Reduced Drastically
In the letter addressed to its members by one of the airline unions, it was observed that job guarantees will be down to only one year after the privatisation takes place keeping in line with the guidelines of DIPAM. But there are constant efforts being put to increase the job guarantee from one year to at least three years.
ICPA has decided to call an emergency meeting which will comprise of ICPA officials and its various committees which will then talk about the line of action they will take to keep the interest of their members protected and also for the release of payments of 25% dues that are illegally on hold as of now.
Government Has Closed Its Ears for All the Managements Recommendations
ICPA stated that the government is not considering the Air India’s management’s any recommendation. Recently, the management of Air India requested the government to look over their proposal for medical facilities for their employees but the government turned it down.
The bids for Air India are going to be held soon where its entire stake will be for sale.