New Delhi: The removal of Air India's three new expensive hires, including two COOs, is proving to be the Maharaja's Egyptian uprising that's triggering other revolts against the management. In an unprecedented move, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) on Tuesday barred its members from flying with a captain-either as a passenger or commander-who's an official on special duty (OSD) to CMD Arvind Jadhav.
Accusing Captain Sandeep Marwaha of "working against the community", the union of pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines (ICPA) directed pilots not to "undertake any flight, travel (as) staff on leave, staff on duty or additional crew member or accept him on your flight".
ICPA sources alleged that Marwaha, by virtue of being a member of the association, used to attend meetings and pass on information to the management based on which decisions detrimental to their interests were taken. The union has given a notice to go on strike from next Wednesday over issues like pay disparity with AI counterparts. When contacted, Marwaha said he's OSD to the CMD and since the pilots could not target Jadhav, they were training their guns at him.
"I used to be ICPA president two years back and was chucked out for opposing a strike call then. Even now, I have been opposing the strike call given this time as pilots are highly paid and the demand for more money should not come with threat of inconveniencing travellers. The airline is passing through a rough patch and a panel is looking at the demand of pay parity," Marwaha said.
Meanwhile, acutely aware of the growing fissures within cash-strapped AI, especially between the employees and the management, new aviation minister Vayalar Ravi is trying to apply a healing touch to the critically ill Maharaja.
02/03/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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