Air India's town hall may throw up issue of revised pay for pilots

New Delhi [India], May 4 : The management of Air India (AI) on Thursday orgsed a town hall for its pilots virtually. AI Operations Chief Captain RS Sandhu would address the pilots, sources said.

Sources said the management and the pilots may discuss the revised pay issues during the town hall. Recently, AI pilot unions ICPA and IPG wrote to the management and expressed their unhappiness over the revised pay structure.

Air India Commercial Pilot Association on April 21 sent a legal notice to its chief human resources officer with respect to the proposed revised terms and conditions of service of pilots.

The legal notice stated that the members of the association were astonished to receive emails addressed to them individually by the 'Air India HR Team' on April 16 and 17.

Air India Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson said 70 per cent of the pilots have agreed to the new revised salary structure.

For the pilots with four years of seniority as Commanders in Air India, the email announced, "Congratulations! You have been promoted as Senior Commander, which is an Executive Role"

The legal notice sent by the association through advocate Bharat Gupta quoted the email as stating that as a 'Senior Commander' the members of My Client will be responsible for carrying out flying as well as management duties and will be eligible for a monthly 'Management Allowance'.

Also enclosed with the email were 'the revised terms of employment including revised compensation details effective from April 1, 2023' and members were informed that they were 'required' to read the revised terms carefully and e-sign the same latest by April 24, 2023, which was stated to be 'for Air India's records'.

There was also a 'postscript' stating that the contents of the email were strictly confidential in nature and should not be circulated.

The legal notice stated that this action of contacting My Client's member pilots 'individually' in the matter of the terms and conditions of service, is not only unjust, coercive and intimidatory, but is illegal.