New Delhi: Amid the ongoing standoff between Air Indian Express (AIX) and a section of it crew members which led to cancellation of nearly 100 flights on Thursday, the airline has now come up in action and has terminated some of its protesting staffers.
According to the sources, as many as 25 crew members have been terminated who went on sick leave, resulting in disruptions to flight operations.
"This clearly points to a pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason," the company said in the note addressed to the terminated employees.
"Your act of reporting sick for work amounts to a concerted action with a common understanding, to not operate the flight and to disrupt services of the Company. This is not only in violation of the applicable laws, but also violates the Air India Express Limited Employees' Service Rules as are applicable to you," it read.
The letter further said that as the airline suffered massive operation disruptions causing "embarrassment, severe reputational damage, and serious monetary loss" to the airline, the company "has decided to terminate your employment with immediate effect on and from the date of this letter".
"Your act is not only subversive of public interest, but also caused embarrassment, severe reputational damage, and serious monetary loss to the company," the letter read.
As the Tata backed AIX witnessed massive turbulence on Wednesday with thousands of passengers getting impacted due to cancellations and delays, CEO Alok Singh in an internal message to employees on May 8 said that he is open to have a discussion with the cabin crew and that the airline will curtail flights for the next few days to mitigate the disruption.
In his internal message, Singh said that since last evening, more than 100 cabin crew members have reported sick prior to their rostered flight duty, "at the last minute, severely disrupting our operations".
More than 90 flights have been disrupted due to the situation, he added. "The disruptions have cascaded across the network, forcing us to curtail the schedules over the next few days. We had to do this to cope with the non-availability of crew and to recover schedules," he said.
Singh also said the company leadership is available for any discussions if there are concerns that need to be addressed. "All comms channels remain open - departmental townhalls (one pre-scheduled for tomorrow), monthly all-hands townhall besides formal and informal reach out to leaders," he said.
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