Air India brings down number of recognised unions to 6

National carrier Air India has brought down the number of recognised unions to six from 14 following the completion of the poll process, which it had set in process some time ago.
This move will help the management hold "structured dialogues and negotiations on various employees-related issues".
After the poll results, which were announced yesterday late evening, over 84 per cent of its total 12,075 employees including its engineering and ground handling subsidiaries exercised their right to vote in electing the six recognised unions, Air India director for personnel N K Jain said.
Air India's two pilots unions - Indian Pilots Guild, which represents wide-body fleet, and Indian Commercial Pilots Association, which represents narrow-body fleet, had not participated in the poll process.

Earlier, the government-owned airline had 14 recognised unions, including in its two subsidiaries for cargo and ground-handling, necessitating the carrier to reduce their number as the management was finding it difficult to identify the real representatives of the employees while calling them for negotiations on several industrial dispute resolutions.
Air India Employees Union and Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), which is headed by J B Kadian, will be the two recognised unions in the airline and its ground-handling subsidiary, Air India Transport Services Limited.

Since ACEU was also derecognised in 2010 after it went on a strike and subsequently took the management to the court, it would get recognition only when all the pending disputes are resolved.

The two other unions which will be granted recognition are of the technicians -- Indian Aircraft Technicians Association (IATA) and All India Aircraft Engineers Association in the engineering subsidiary, Air India Engineering Services Limited.
However, pilots would not have any recognised union in the airline.
"Now when we have them, we know who we can talk to. This way we can have structured dialogues and negotiations on the employees related issues," Jain, who is an Indian Railway Personnel Service cadre officer, said.
Terming the elections as "historic", Jain said that this is the first step towards bringing harmony in the employees of the erstwhile Air India and erstwhile Indian Airlines.

The national carrier had in November 2013 set up a four-member committee under former labour secretary Krishna Mohan Sahni to suggest a road-map for cutting down the number of recognised unions in the airline.