New Delhi: The Indian Commercial Pilots' Association on Friday sought an urgent intervention of AIR India CMD Rajiv Bansal after "around 50" pilots received termination letters a day ago.
In the letter, the pilots' association also cited Air India's official communication that had said the airline board's decision regarding rationalisation of staff cost were reviewed in a meeting at the Civil Aviation Ministry and it was decided that no employee of the national carrier will be laid off.
"Yesterday (Thursday) night, around 50 pilots have received illegal termination letters from Personnel Department in blatant violation of Company's Operation Manual and service rules," the union said.
Pilots, who tendered their resignations as far back as July 2019 but later withdrew them well within the mandatory 6 months' notice period, have nevertheless been relieved from service suddenly starting from 10 pm on Thursday.
Read more:Air India no longer accepting withdrawal of resignations
The association sought the justification behind the termination, saying the timely withdrawal had been acknowledged by the company in the termination letter.
The crew were not informed of the acceptance of resignation and the commencement of any notice period of six months, it claimed.
According to the ICPA, one of the sacked pilots was made to operate a flight on Friday. This is a violation of "comical proportion" not to mention a grave flight safety hazard.
"What would have been the mental state of these pilots after knowing their services were terminated?"it asked.
For the safety of the travelers alone, if not on humanitarian grounds, these pilots should not have been made to operate flights under such traumatic circumstances, the association said.
"This vengeful exercise carried out by personnel department last night to illegally terminate pilots directly compromises the safety of our flights. This has been done brazenly against the official commitment of the board and MoCA," the association added.
