Cabin crew say Air India compulsory leave is layoffs through backdoor

The All India Cabin Crew Association in a letter to Air India management said that AICCA records its strong protest at this circular and fears that this compulsory leave scheme is a smokescreen for a retrenchment/layoff scheme by the back door and is in gross violation of various Supreme Court orders, including the Constitutional bench judgment on Section 25, and infringes on the Air India SC case on hand.

"We note with great concern that the said circular purports to send employees on Compulsory Leave without Pay, by the CMD, as recommended by the RD & regional officials. This is highly arbitrary & subjective and is a violation of the Certified Standing Orders (Amended) of erstwhile Air India, as applicable to us," the cabin crew members said.

"Respectfully, we must also note that the circular & the board resolution itself are illegal as they violate the CSO, 9A of the ID Act and most importantly infringe on a matter that is being heard by the Hon Supreme Court of India, where we are a party.  The larger bench of the Apex court is hearing the matter of Service Conditions, Standing Orders & 9A, and this circular violates that and brings in alien concepts of redundancies, merely to skirt existing retrenchment laws," the letter said.

"We find it shocking that our Airline seeks to arbitrarily retrench the very Corona Warriors who have been flying Vande Bharat Missions, at great risk to themselves and many have contracted COVID," the association said and has asked Air India CMD to keep the said circular in abeyance and engage in constructive dialogue with the AICCA on this subject.