The Hindu : No written undertaking, no flying duties: AI

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 03, 2003

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No written undertaking, no flying duties: AI

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI MAY 2. Air India today vowed to "continue with disciplining" its pilots notwithstanding the "unconditional" withdrawal of their union's directives by the derecognised Indian Pilots' Guild and asked individual pilots to sign an undertaking by 5 p.m. tomorrow stating that they would operate flights as assigned by the management. "No undertaking, no flying duties," the airline said. Even the duty hours henceforth would be prescribed by the DGCA and not decided by any bilateral agreements with the former union.

Even the assignment of flights, the AI spokesman said, would be dependent on the exigencies of work required and, in future, pilots would have to report for training as and when deputed "which shall be without any compensation". At a meeting of the Heads of Departments — AI has 18 directors — it was decided that the IPG would not be brought back to life.

The options ahead in dealing with the pilots would include steps that lead to dismissal on the basis of the gravity of misconduct. The lesser severe possibilities are censure and even demotions in some cases but they would depend on the outcome of procedures launched by the airline.

In fact, a letter written to AI by the IPG stating that "all valid directives'' to its members over SARS were being withdrawn and that normal flight duties would be resumed "would not even be acknowledged". All depends on individual undertakings.

It is quite possible that the AI may stretch the deadline if the unionised pilots — the spokesman, Jitendra Bhargava, described them as "workmen category pilots" — to come in and sign the undertakings but the recruitment process of new pilots on contract "would continue. All options remain.''

The Mumbai High Court said today that Air India should permit the pilots to rejoin duty. But they would have to "put in their written representations individually explaining why they did not report for duty" hitherto and the "management would permit them to join depending on the exigencies of work". The court gave its views on a petition filed by several suspended pilots.

The case was posted for a later date. This order "does not mean that this court is approving of any conduct" of the IPG and that AI was "at liberty to proceed with the departmental enquiry which they have initiated or they may initiate based on the conduct'' of the employees.

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