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All unhappy crew members are ready to join office with immediate effect and management is ready to revoked all termination letter…reports Asian Lite News

In a meeting that continued for about four and a half hours regarding the human resource crisis at Air India Express, an agreement was reached with the crew members addressing all their concerns.

Both the crew and management members have agreed to restore normal airline operations. Consequently, the termination of 25 crew members has been overturned.

All unhappy crew members are ready to join office with immediate effect and management is ready to revoked all termination letter, crew members said.

The meeting was held at the office of the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC). Four officers, alongside the Chief Human Resource Officer of Air India Express, were also present at the meeting.

Approximately 20 senior crew members also participated.

Should the crew members’ demands remain unmet, another meeting is scheduled to convene on May 28.

About 85 flights were cancelled due to sudden sick leave calls from crew members.

On Wednesday, Air India Express apologised for the inconvenience after its flights, most of them international, were either cancelled or delayed due to senior crew members calling in sick.

The sudden shortage of crew members led to flights being grounded, affecting both domestic and international routes. Sources said that some senior crew members switched off their mobile phones just before flight operations, citing health issues.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation had called for a detailed report from Air India Express regarding the matter and had urged the airline to promptly resolve the issues.

This incident at Air India Express comes shortly after Vistara encountered similar issues in April, when hundreds of flights were affected due to pilots calling in sick.

“On appeal of the Chief Labour Commissioner (Central) the management agreed to reinstate 25 cabin crew who have been terminated on May 7 and May 8 for reporting sick as a concerted action immediately. The management will review the cases of these cabin crew as per service regulations,” it further read.

“The representatives of the management assured that all the issues of cabin crew raised before the management and during conciliation proceedings will be looked into and resolved. The conciliation proceeding is adjourned and fixed for May 28 at 3 p.m.,” the note added.

Over 80 flights were cancelled on Thursday following the mass sick leave taken by the cabin crew of Air India Express, said an official.

“We will be operating 283 flights today. We have mobilised all resources and Air India will support us by operating on 20 of our routes. However, 85 of our flights stand cancelled and we urge our guests booked to fly with us to check if their flight is affected by the disruption before heading to the airport,” said the Air India Express spokesperson.

“We are pleased with the progress we made at the conciliation meeting and welcome our cabin crew colleagues back at work. This will help us swiftly restore our flight schedule and fulfil our commitments to our guests. We sincerely apologise to those inconvenienced by these unintended disruptions. It is not in keeping with our usual service standards, and we will review it internally to ensure accountability. As we gradually bring our operations back to normalcy, we urge our guests booked to fly with us to check their flight status before heading to the airport. If their flight is cancelled, or delayed beyond 3 hours, they may opt for a full refund or reschedule to a later date without any fees,” the spokesperson added.

The breakthrough will come as a relief to passengers, hundreds of whom were left stranded, especially on Wednesday when the sudden cancellations began. Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh had written to employees on Wednesday and said that the number of flights being operated will be reduced over the next few days, but all cabin crew members are expected to return to work immediately and services are likely to be normalised in three-four days.

An Air India Express spokesperson said, “We are pleased with the progress we made at the conciliation meeting and welcome our cabin crew colleagues back at work. This will help us swiftly restore our flight schedule and fulfil our commitments to our guests. We sincerely apologise to those inconvenienced by these unintended disruptions.”

“As we gradually bring our operations back to normalcy, we urge our guests booked to fly with us to check their flight status before heading to the airport. If their flight is cancelled, or delayed beyond 3 hours, they may opt for a full refund or reschedule to a later date without any fees,” the spokesperson added.

The airline had to cancel flights after 300 senior cabin crew members began reporting sick at the last minute starting Tuesday night and then switched off their cellphones. What precipitated the crisis were new employment terms and modifications in the compensation package, sources had said. Crew members had also alleged a lack of equality in the treatment of staff.

It had come to light on Thursday that the airline had sacked 25 of the crew members who had called in sick. The others said they would not return to work until they were reinstated.

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