Licence renewal issue: Air India sends a strongly worded email to pilots

The tussle between the management of Air India and the pilots seems to be extended for some more days as Air India has sent out a strongly worded email, including a directive of disciplinary and monetary action against its pilots, in case of delay in licence renewal or Airport Entry Pass (AEP).

Air India in an email said,"An email was sent to all pilots, particularly in the North Zone last week with the subject mentioning 'submission/completion of all formalities for licence renewals.

"In spite of such repeated remainders some crew are not doing the needful which is leading to delay in their license related issues and are becoming unavailable to the company for performing their duties Which leads company no other choice but to take some strict action against the individual crew member," the email read."

The mail further stated that there have been various instances where the crew has not submitted the required documents or completed the required formalities, which are "needed to be done w.r.t license renewals".

It mentioned that the training department of Air India is available to the pilots for their documentation and should they fail to do so, they will face monetary loss.

"Training department is there to assist the crew member so that there is no loss of time from duty (non-availability) nor they get penalised monetarily, if submission of documentation is not initiated at least 45 days before the expiry of license then the crew member will be issued a caution letter," the email read further.

Earlier, on April 17, Air India rolled out a revamped compensation structure for its pilots and cabin crew, which has since been rejected by the two pilot unions - Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) - on the grounds that the airline, in alleged violation of the labour practices, did not consult them before finalising the new contracts.

The Tata Group-owned airline announced a new salary structure for pilots and cabin crew but the staff was disappointed with the revisions. Their main grouse was about promoting captains with more than four years of experience in management.

*With agency inputs