Airline employees plan nationwide trade union

MUMBAI: Fresh from the success of two strikes by pilots of Jet Airways and Air India, the country’s 50,000 airline employees plan to form a nationwide trade union that will represent pilots, engineers, maintenance staff, cabin crew and ground handling staff.

The proposal, put forward by the trade unions of Air India and Jet Airways, is expected to elicit good response from the airline staff, who face job losses and salary cuts, with the domestic airline industry troubled by losses looking to cut employee costs. Frequent cuts in fares due to cut-throat competition and high fuel prices have seen the industry’s accumulated losses mounting to around Rs 10,000 crore at the end of the last financial year.

“Discussions are already on. We will meet pilots from other airlines to form a national union soon,” said Captain Girish Kaushik, president of National Aviators Guild (NAG), that represents more than 650 pilots of Jet Airways, the country’s largest airline by passenger numbers. “The union will have representation of engineers, cabin crew and other segment of airlines employees in the long-run,” he added.

The mood is definitely upbeat after the strikes that demonstrated the damage potential of industrial action. Jet Airways lost at least Rs 400 crore due to the five-day strike in the first week of September, while Air India lost Rs 100 crore from the four-day strike later in the month.

The country’s airlines employ about 2,500 pilots. Almost all pilots with Air India and more than half of those with other airlines are expected to join the proposed national union. “One industry, one union, that’s what we aim for. A single union at the national level will protect the rights of each and every employee,” said George Abraham, general secretary of Aviation Industry Employees Guild, a union of Air India employees.

Around 25,000 employees of the government-owned National Aviation Company of India (Nacil), which runs Air India, is represented by three unions — AIEG, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG).

While employees of Jet Airways and Air India have formed trade unions, carriers such as Kingfisher Airlines, SpiceJet, Paramount Airways, IndiGo and GoAir do not have any union at any level, although some of them have welfare associations. Analysts tracking the industry said the employee activism is fallout of the downturn in airline business, which could see some airlines resorting to job cuts. This could further damage the prospects of the industry.

The formation of a national union by airline employees is expected after the recent strikes in Jet Airways and Air India, said Kapil Kaul, CEO of Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation, Indian subcontinent & the Middle East. “It will not have much impact in the short-term. But in the long-run, it will have substantial impact,” he said. “It all depends on how airlines handle the employee issues and how they maintain industrial relationship, after the union formation,” he added.

In an e-mail reply, a UB Group spokesman said the company is not aware of a move to form a national union of airline employees. “The award-winning best practices in our talent management initiatives ensure that all our employees, including pilots, have adequate opportunities and platforms to share their feedback, concerns and ensure that they are heard and addressed by the leadership team,” he said. E-mail queries sent to Jet Airways and Air India did not get any response.

In August, Kingfisher Airlines had warned its 6,000 employees of possible salary delays, saying that the company was facing financial difficulties. Last October, it had benched 50 trainee co-pilots, asking them to stay at home till further orders. Jet Airways had sacked 50 employees in June and referred them to an in-house outplacement cell for jobs with other airlines.

Pilots are concerned about job security and indirect salary cuts. In India, most airlines pay their pilots a fixed salary. Private airlines in

India pay an executive pilot a salary from Rs 4-5 lakh per month. However, if the pilot flies more than 70-75 hours a month, he gets an additional payment for each hour flown at about Rs 4,000 an hour. Expats are given higher salaries compared with Indian pilots.

Kingfisher Airlines is burning cash continuously and losses are mounting. Its net loss during the April-June quarter increased to Rs 240 crore from Rs 158 crore in the year-ago period. Jet Airways posted a net loss of Rs 225 crore in the June quarter, compared with a profit of Rs 143 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Nacil has projected a Rs 5,000-crore loss by the end of the current fiscal, which will take its accumulated losses to Rs 12,200 crore.