Air India unions oppose ground handling JV

Mumbai: Fourteen unions representing over 30,000 employees of the National Aviation Company Ltd (Nacil) have threatened to go on strike in Mumbai from Tuesday to oppose the government’s decision to set up a ground-handling services joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (Sats).
The 50-50 joint venture is expected to come into force from January 1, 2009.
Air India’s ground-handling services contribute Rs 800 crore annually towards the revenue. The airline has over 20,000 ground-handling employees who will be shifted to the new joint venture.
Unions say this is backdoor privatisation of the airline and would also mean a change in the service conditions from a government entity to a new one, raising the threat of job losses for employees who will be shifted to the joint venture.
The revenue share with Sats has not been made public by the airline and Air India did not talk numbers.
“With this joint venture, our revenues get shared with a company that is banking on our expertise and technology,” said George Abraham, general secretary, Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild.
“This is a move to privatise the airline slowly because after the ground-handling joint venture with Sats, another one is in the offing for the maintenance, repair and overhaul services,” he added.
Abraham said the management has referred the matter to the labour commissioner and there have been talks between the management and unions.
“But the management says it is a government decision and they cannot do much about it,” He added.
Under the government’s new ground-handling policy, private carriers are not allowed to undertake their own services and have to depend on either Air India’s joint venture or two other ground-handling companies contracted by the airport authorities.
16/12/08 Manisha Singhal/Business Standard

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, NACIL Dec 2008