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Air India staff unions seek probe into provident fund trusts
Requesting a meeting with Puri in its letter dated May 25, the forum has asked the ministry to cover these losses and subsidise the transition of the Air India / Indian Airlines provident trusts to the EPFO, without any loss to any employees
Air India Joint Actions Forum of Unions, representing 10,000 staff members, has approached civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri seeking a forensic probe into the alleged mishandling of two provident trust funds that have incurred losses to the tune of ₹1,085 crore.
The forum’s May 25 letter reads, “It has come as a shock to all of us Unions, many of whom were not involved or aware of the day to day functioning of the Provident Fund trusts of Indian Airlines and Air India that huge losses have been incurred by both the trusts, due to questionable investments in companies like ILFS and Dewan Housing, among others, which collapsed.”
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The issue came up as the airline, which is set to be privatised, asked its employees to transfer their savings from the two trusts to the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO). The employees allege this will result in losses for them because of bad investments made with the trust money without their knowledge.
Requesting a meeting with Puri, the forum has asked the ministry to cover these losses and subsidise the transition of the Air India / Indian Airlines provident trusts to the EPFO, without any loss to them.
“We have only learnt of the magnitude of these losses allegedly incurred through some questionable investments, by means of a MOCA letter no 17046/73/2019- AI dated 16/04/21, which is in public domain, wherein the figure of losses mentioned is ₹1,085 crore,” the letter reads.
