Air India derecognises unions, sacks & suspends employees

Air India (AI) management had a head-on collision with the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) and All India Aircraft Engineers Association (AIAEA) on Thursday.

AI derecognised both the unions and sacked and suspended more than 100 employees. The unions retorted by saying that derecognition would hardly make any difference as they are still a force to reckon with. They even served notice for yet another strike from June 12.

Official sources said the government was ready for any eventuality. “We have already issued an order to government servants to use other airlines and this order is not being withdrawn. There is no rethink on termination notices served to employees… our stance this time shows it not just all bark and no bite,” they said.

AI also gave out an assurance that flight schedules would be normalised by Friday. In a statement, AI said wage disbursements should happen from June 1. Airline officials had earlier indicated a delay in wage payout till June 7.

The ACEU is a union of erstwhile Indian employees and has 12,000 members out of the 17,000 employees. The members include ground staff, cabin crew and technical staff. AIAEA has 700 engineers as its members. The union of AI employees has more than 10,000 members, including cabin crew.

Unperturbed by this, Dinkar Shetty, president, ACEU said: “Our union consists of more than 60% employees of Indian. Even if they derecognise us, we have the right to protest. We can challenge them under the Industrial Disputes Act.”