Air India panel discusses privatisation-related issues of employees

The Internal mechanism panel, comprising members from both the Air India management and its trade unions, met for the first time in New Delhi to discuss various employees-related issues ahead of the carrier's proposed privatisation, a source said.

The trade union representative are said to have discussed with the management all the issues concerning their employment such as service-contracts, job-security, gratuity, pension and voluntary retirement scheme after the company goes into private hands, the source privy to the meeting proceedings told PTI.

Air India had on last Tuesday constituted a nine-member committee to look into staff-related issues after discussions between Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and representatives of various Air India unions.

Puri had asked the airline to set up an internal mechanism committee comprising members from the management and its various trade unions to sort out privatisation-related issues of employees.

"During the meeting, which lasted for about 4-5 hours, various unions representatives raised the issues such as job-security, service-contracts, gratuity, pension, the possibility of VRS and other HR related problems that may crop up after the airline is privatised," the source said.

He said the management took the minute of the meeting and an elaborate discussion is expected to take place at the next meeting on Thursday.

The source, however, said that the AI bid document, which the government brought out early in the day, could not be discussed as the unions were yet to study it.

Apart from three general managers of the airline, there are six representatives from various employee unions on the panel.