A committee of top officials of Air India met on Thursday for the first time to find ways to implement the Dharmadhikari Committee
recommendations on human resource integration. The human resources issues were reportedly seen as the major reason behind the unrest in carrier's union.
The Thursday meeting was seen as the first major move to resolve the human resources issues.
Air India had on Tuesday formed this committee comprising four airline officials.
According to the official, the committee on "implementation and anomaly rectification" is led by Nasir Ali, a director in the civil aviation ministry and also officer on special duty to Air India. The three other members are director-level officials with the airline.
In another major development, the civil aviation ministry published the Dharmadhikari committee report on its website. The contents were so keenly guarded by the ministry that few recommendations were unveiled on June 1, 2012.
"We found it a challenging task as even after more than four years, the merger was mostly on paper in so far as the integration of manpower was concerned. We could realise a deep sense of frustration and mistrust amongst the employees of two merged entities," Justice Dharmadhikari wrote about the Air India and Indian Airlines merger in the preface of the report.
"The committee has also considered it necessary to recommend that in order to remain in the competitive field, Air India will have to be in line with the international, national aviation industry benchmarks."
The government had unveiled June 1 the Dharmadhikari Committee report that was set up to address the contentious HR issues in the merged entity.
Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh that time had promised employees of the Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines of parity in pay scales and working hours, saying "this (employees' integration) is necessary if merger (in Air India) has to succeed, if Air India has to survive".
The process, he said, would start in 45 days.
Although Air India and Indian Airlines were merged five years ago, there was hardly any integration of the two airlines' cadres.
The recommendations of the committees report are deemed so high priority by the ministry that even promotions were frozen in 2011 following constitution of the Dharmadhikari Committee.
The Dharmadhikari Committee has recommended the constitution of departmental promotion committees (DPCs) to ensure that this is done in a fair and comprehensive manner.
Each DPC will have a fair representation from Air India and Indian Airlines and would also include an outside expert. The DPCs will have 45 days to consult the employees and recommend the procedure through which seniority of rank will be maintained.
The Dharmadhikari report says the pay scale should be as per DPE (department of public enterprises) norms for the executive cadre and as per industry norms for the non-executive cadre which includes pilots, cabin crews and engineers.
The committee has also recommended profit-related pay as per DPE guidelines which will be linked to the profit earned by the company and the achievement of various targets.
With IANS inputs
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