Pilot fires

Air India pilots are reinstated and an opportunity to take bold decisions is lost

The civil aviation ministry,which has handled the Air India pilots strike,showed an alarming softness in dealing with what is egregious white-collar activism in a struggling company. The Air India management took a sensible,firm line to begin with: the pilots union leading the strike that has disrupted air travel all over India was de-recognised,its nine leaders fired. It was at that point that the civil aviation ministry stepped in,greatly diluting the strength of the response,allowing the strike to continue for longer,and signalling to those of Air Indias employees hoping to squeeze something extra out of the taxpayer,that the Centre is a soft touch.

What did the civil aviation ministry do? On Tuesday,Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said,If the agitating pilots of Air India call off their strike,the airline management will take back the pilots who were terminated. That was unacceptably weak. Flights were cancelled; a loss-making enterprise was driven further into the red; travel schedules of tens of thousands of Indians were horrendously upset. Who will be held accountable for this?

And it wont just be the pilots that will be reinstated; the entire association,which was appropriately de-recognised,will be formally

re-recognised. The civil aviation ministry has demonstrated a complete lack of spine in this respect,and an unwillingness to consider the fact that it is empowering provocateurs who will only continue to make trouble. These are not oppressed workers by any stretch of the imagination,but white-collar employees who through a loophole in the law are considered manual workers. They are a set of overpaid professionals who were angry that their bankrupt company is not overpaying them as it is some other overpaid professionals. Because the bankrupt company in question is state-run,they thought they could blackmail the state into handing over taxpayer money to supplement their already above-market salaries. This was a moment the Centre should have seized to articulate a vision of Air Indias future in which costs are cut,excess workforce shed,and the company taken off the taxpayers payroll. Returning to status quo ante is not the solution,and the civil aviation ministry should not think that it is. Air India will inevitably be shut; treating it like a PSU,its employees like errant children,will only prolong the agony.