Air India Express cabin crew call off strike

Air India Express cabin crew on Thursday decided to withdraw their strike and the airline agreed to reinstate 25 staff who were terminated from service according to sourcesA section of the cabin crew started reporting sick from Tuesday night to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline forcing cancellation of more than 170 flights and impacting thousands of passengers at various airportsThe decisions to end the strike and withdraw the termination letters were agreed upon during a conciliation meeting between the representatives of cabin crew and the airline management at the Office of the Chief Labour Commissioner Central in the national capital on ThursdayThe meeting which went on for nearly five hours was between representatives of Air India Express Employees Union AIXEU and airline management The union is affiliated to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh BMS an associate of the RSSAfter the meeting Girish Chandra Arya All India Secretary of the BMS said the termination of 25 cabin crew of Air India Express has been withdrawnBoth parties will discuss the issues and there will be a meeting again on May 28 he saidAfter detailed discussion persuasion and on appeal of the Conciliation Officer and the Chief Labour Commissioner the union representatives agreed that all the cabin crew members who have reported sick will report for duty with fitness certificate immediately according to a document signed by the representatives of the union and the airlineOn appeal of the Chief Labour Commissioner Central the management agreed to reinstate 25 cabin crew who have been terminated on May 7 and 8 2024 for reporting sick as a concerted action immediatelyThe management will review the cases of these crew as per service regulations it saidAs per the document the representatives of the airline assured that all the issues of cabin crew raised before the management and during conciliation proceedings will be looked into and resolvedEarlier in the day the Tata Group airline said it has cancelled 85 flights or about 23 per cent of the total operational capacity due to cabin crew shortage and will be operating 283 flightsTo minimise the disruptions Air India is operating flights on 20 routes of Air India Express which has curtailed services till May 13Sources earlier in the day said around 250 cabin crew reported sick on ThursdayOn Wednesday the civil aviation ministry sought a report from Air India Express on the cancellation of flights and also asked the airline to resolve the issues promptlyDiscontent has been brewing among a section of staff at Air India Express after the start of the process to merger AIX Connect formerly AirAsia India with itself A section of the cabin crew has alleged mismanagement and lack of equality in the treatment of staff A conciliation process is happening under the Industrial Disputes Act after a union representing a section of the Air India Express cabin crew had filed a complaint before the labour department last yearRoom sharing lack of proper support revised salary structure and alleged differential treatment of experienced crew members of Air India Express are among the issues being flagged by the striking cabin crewIn a message to the airlines staff Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh on Wednesday said since last evening more than 100 cabin crew members have reported sick prior to their rostered flight duty at the last minute severely disrupting our operationsThe disruptions have cascaded across the network forcing us to curtail the schedules over the next few days We had to do this to cope with the nonavailability of crew and to recover schedules Singh had saidHe had also said the company leadership is available for any discussions if there are concerns that need to be addressedAir India Express cabin crews strike came a month after Tata Group fullservice carrier Vistara witnessed pilot woes forcing it to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent or 2530 flights dailyAs part of consolidating its airline business Tata Group is merging Air India Express and AIX Connect as well as Vistara with Air IndiaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever