Contractual recruitment by Air India 'violates' DGCA norms

Air India (AI) has run into a major controversy by deciding to hire 225 hostesses on a 'five-year contract' for its Boeing 787 Dreamliners and narrow-bodied Airbus A320 fleets, which 'violates' norms of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The civil aviation requirements (CAR) prohibit commercial carriers from hiring cabin crew and flight crew members on contract. The CAR in para 3.2.5 clearly states that airlines must have "on regular employment sufficient number of flight crew and cabin crew" and the number of such employees must not be less than three sets of crew per aircraft.

The only exemption given is in the case of the airline hiring foreign pilots on contract and that too as a stopgap arrangement when there is shortage of domestic pilots. The rules also clearly states that this is only for a "limited period to enable pilots of the airline to acquire necessary experience and to carry out training and proficiency checks for acquiring the type endorsement".

However, AI chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan told MAIL TODAY: "Contractual fulltime employees who are selected through a regular process are regular. The DGCA does not require any airline to only have permanent employees."

A senior DGCA official maintained that the CAR prohibits contractual employment for cabin crew. DGCA chief Prabhat Kumar refused to come on the phone despite repeated attempts to contact him.

Official documents accessed by MAIL TODAY show that the DGCA had given a one-time grant to AI in 2011 to absorb 25 cabin crew on contract from erstwhile Alliance Air when it shut down. But since then, the airline started hiring employees on contract as well. AI has, at least, 3,400 cabin crew and around 800 are on contract.

Many air crew members are protesting the growing culture of contractual employment and want all fresh and existing employees on contract to be hired as full-time employees. A senior AI official said that cabin crew on contract are easily victimised and there is every possibility of them being subject to harassment due to the uncertain nature of their jobs. The extension of the job can be subject to the whims of the top bosses and give rise to exploitation, he added. Ironically, all private airlines hire their air crew as fulltime employees.

AI recently issued an advertisement for a walk-in-interview for air crew members with two years' experience on a fixedterm contractual appointment for an initial period of five years.

The interviews are slated for August 12 and 13 in New Delhi and Chennai.

(In association with Mail Today)