Air India sends strongly worded directive to pilots amid licence renewal row

The pilot said these are intimidation tactics by the management after 70 per cent (majority) of the pilots didn't sign the revised contract.

Air India has sent out a strongly worded email, including a directive of disciplinary and monetary action against its pilots, in case of delay in licence renewal or Airport Entry Pass (AEP).

Air India sent out strongly worded email to pilots. (REUTERS)

"An email was sent to all pilots, particularly in the North Zone last week with the subject mentioning 'submission/completion of all formalities for licence renewals," the carrier said in the email.

The mail further stated that there have been various instances where the crew has not submitted the required documents or completed the required formalities, which are "needed to be done w.r.t license renewals".

"In spite of such repeated remainders some crew are not doing the needful which is leading to delay in their license related issues and are becoming unavailable to the company for performing their duties Which leads company no other choice but to take some strict action against the individual crew member," the email read.

It mentioned that the training department of Air India is available to the pilots for their documentation and should they fail to do so, they will face monetary loss.

"Training department is there to assist the crew member so that there is no loss of time from duty (non-availability) nor they get penalised monetarily, if submission of documentation is not initiated at least 45 days before the expiry of license then the crew member will be issued a caution letter," the email read further.

After taking full charge of Air India, Tata has asked all pilots to to initiate their licence renewal in advance for at least 45 days or else monetary action can be taken and crew members will be issued caution letters in this regard.

ANI reached out to Air India pilots on recent incendiary emails, which directed disciplinary and monetary action against pilots in case of delay in licence renewal or Airport Entry Pass (AEP) renewal.

An Air India pilot, on the condition of anonymity, said, "Pilots see this as a precursor of things which will follow after the new terms and conditions come into effect."

The pilot further said these are intimidation tactics by the management after 70 per cent (majority) of the pilots didn't sign the revised contract.

In a weekly address to all AI colleagues company CEO Campbell Wilson said 90 per cent of cabin crew and the majority of pilots have accepted the new contract.

There was no immediate media statement from Air India regarding this. (ANI)