Air India-Ajit Singh meet: IPG pilots are in for tough times

Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh is scheduled to meet all the recognised unions of Air India in the afternoon despite the ’no-show’ by pilots affiliated to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) entering its 14th day.

Pilots of the erstwhile AI, affiliated to the de-recognised IPG, have been reporting sick for the past fortnight, severely disrupting the airline’s international operations. The IPG has not been invited for today’s meeting.

It is interesting to note that the minister called the meeting just as the paralysis of AI’s international operations has begun to actually help the airline’s finances. A senior Civil Aviation Ministry official said that AI is saving Rs 5 crore daily ever since long-haul flights were severely curtailed. Another official added that AI’s international operations account for a net loss of as much as Rs 5,800 crore every year.

At least four international flights, including Toronto and Chicago flights, do not “even meet the cost of aviation turbine fuel,” according to sources. No wonder then that there have been multiple reports over the last few days, citing Government officials, which indicate that the airline may shut its international operations completely.

But these have been denied by ministry officials who maintain that a truncated schedule will continue to operate. However, a skeletal international schedule has meant a revenue loss of Rs 150-200 crore for Air India over the last fortnight.

So what does Ajit Singh hope to achieve with today’s meeting? Senior civil aviation ministry officials said this meeting was scheduled months in advance and had been called to discuss implications of the Dharmadhikari panel, which was set up to rationalise the Maharaja’s wage bill. And its outcome will impact all Air India employees, including the agitating IPG pilots.

According to multiple government officials, the Dharmadhikari committee has recommended a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to prune the workforce at Air India, the implementation of a ’no work, no pay’ concept and a comprehensive analysis of the pay structure across the airline to bring it on par with other public sector units.

As of now, the licensed category of employees, which refers to employees that need licenses to operate, account for about 20 per cent, or one-fifth, of the total workforce of AI. “These licensed employees - pilots, cabin crew, engineers - make up only 20 percent of the workforce but take away 80 per cent from the total wage bill. This needs to be rationalised,” pointed out one official.

So does this mean this category of employees will see significant salary cuts? There are vehement denials from the babus on any salary cuts. While one described the implementation of the Dharmadhikari committee report as “level mapping and an exercise to rationalise pay across grades and employee categories”, another vehemently asserted that no one would lose out and that the salary of “not a single employee will be cut”.

But then how will the airline save Rs 200-250 crore in salary payments if no cuts are planned? These officials explain that that could happen if fixed allowances are converted into actuals and pilots no longer get paid allowances for fights they do not operate.

The Dharmadhikari panel has also proposed “cross utilisation” of pilots from the erstwhile AI and Indian Airlines - something the IPG is obviously not happy about. That means neither set of pilots gets a monopoly over a particular aircraft type or on international routes. The airline is already gearing up to computerise pilot duties - something which, until now, had been done manually and usually at the behest of pilot unions. That will also mean that erstwhile AI pilots lose their hegemony over lucrative long-haul flights to Europe and USA.

Besides, from tonight, the first batch of IPG pilots who had called in sick last fortnight will be taken off duty, and will have to appear before a full medical board of the Air Force. This could mean no flights for a long time, depending on when the medical board can fit these pilots into their checkup schedule.

IPG’s troubles are certainly getting worse.