No job cuts under new ground handling policy

New Delhi: It is a good news for about 8,000 airport staff handling jobs of baggage movement, other than taxiing, refuelling and cleaning of the aircraft. The civil aviation ministry will instruct new ground-handling service providers to absorb the existing staff while recruiting new set of people. The staff, working with various airlines, feared a job loss following the implementation of a new policy that barred private carriers to engage in the ground-handling due to security reasons.
“We have discussed the issue of job loss with the airline sector. We will ensure that existing staff of private carriers would be absorbed by the three ground-handling operators, as proposed in the policy,” a senior official in the civil aviation ministry, who wished not to be named, said. Fearing that multiple agency undertaking ground-handling services may pose a security threat, the ministry of civil aviation framed a new ground-handling policy that bars private airlines such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher and IndiGo from this job. The proposed policy allows only three agencies in one airport — the national carrier Air India, the airport operator (such as Airports Authority of India, GMR and GVK), and one private agency selected through bidding.
The ministry is expecting that re-deployment of the ground-handling staff may see only 10% job cut. Meanwhile, the government has postponed the implementation of the new ground-handling policy. The new system will be in place after March, instead of the original schedule of January 2009. Association of airline companies, Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), had said that policy could not be implemented immediately without retrenching about 8,000 staff.
30/12/08 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, Careers Dec 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Dec 2008