AI scraps selected panel of cabin crew

Air India today scrapped a panel of applicants for post of cabin crew for recruitment in erstwhile Indian Airlines in 2008-09, in the wake of alleged irregularities in the selection process.

Air India today scrapped a panel of applicants for post of cabin crew for recruitment in erstwhile Indian Airlines in 2008-09, in the wake of alleged irregularities in the selection process.

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"We have declared the panel of around 500 cabin crew for four regions, selected for Indian Airlines during the recruitment process in December 2008 and January 2009, as null and void as we have received complaints about various irregularities," a senior Air India official told PTI.

Selection process for recruitment of cabin crew began in December 2008 and ended in January 2009.

During the process, it was alleged that some of the union leaders, in connivance with airline officials, promised the aspirants jobs in the national carrier after monetary considerations.

"In May 2009, when Arvind Jadhav took over the charge of Air India's new Chairman-cum-Managing Director, he kept the panel in abeyance after receiving complaints about alleged irregularities," the official said.

But the airline management today declared the panel as null and void, "as the process may not be faulty but subsequent to selection process something went wrong and the message had been sent to all regions where selection process were held," he said. The official also pointed out that any panel that has been selected for over one year becomes infructuous.

Unlike erstwhile Air India, which recruits cabin crew members through an agency, erstwhile Indian Airlines recruited them after vigorous selection process which included first round of selection through a private agency followed by written test and interviews.

A group of eight Air India employee's union, under the banner "Common Action Group To Save Air India", had written to Director Vigilance in the Ministry of Civil Aviation about the alleged irregularities in recruitment of cabin crew and expat pilots.