Panel asks aviation ministry to hand over HCI to tourism ministry

Recommends working out a 'pragmatic' proposal to bring wages and salaries of its employees in line with market

A parliamentary panel has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry to "shed its inertia" in reviving Air India's ailing subsidiary HCI and its flight catering unit Chefair or hand them over to the Tourism Ministry for better management.

In a report tabled in Parliament in the Monsoon session, the Committee on Petitions headed by BJP MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari also recommended working out of a "pragmatic" proposal to bring the wages and salaries of its employees, which have not been revised in the last nine years, in line with the market.

"In case the Ministry of Civil Aviation is not able to shed its inertia in the much-needed efforts towards the revival of Centaur Hotel/Hotel Corporation of India (HCI) and have conceded that running the hotels in the present times is not their expertise, the Committee feels that the entire fleet of hotels under their administrative control could be handed over to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in view of the fact that they have professional experience and expertise of successfully running the Ashoka Group of Hotels," it said.

It recommended that the Civil Aviation Ministry should also explore the possibility of handing over the hotels to the Tourism Ministry or "running them in some form of collaboration with them for transforming them to profit-making ventures, especially keeping in view the overall welfare of the employees."

The committee also noted that "due to the losses incurred during the last several years, the wage revision of the HCI employees has not been effected", with the wage rates being prescribed in 1990.

The HCI's losses stood at Rs 40.47 crore in 2013-14 as against Rs 35.62 crore in 2012-13.

"While taking cognizance of the fact that the matter of wage revision is under adjudication, and notwithstanding the outcome of the adjudication, the Committee, in the meantime, recommend to the Government/Air India that they should work out a pragmatic proposition so as to make the salaries/wages of the HCI employees in tune with the market in this sector," it said.

The Committee was dealing with a detailed petition submitted by Javed Pandit, President of Centaur Hotel Employees Union, and Harish, Chairman of HCI Karamchari Union.