Flag coercive call from management to extend duty: Unions ask A-I pilots

Tata Group-owned Air India's two pilot unions on Wednesday asked their members to flag any "coercive call" from the management for extending flight duty timings beyond the stipulated limits.

In a joint communication to their members, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) also said that they are in the process of compiling the records of recent instances (of such calls).

The communication comes in the backdrop of the two unions writing to Air India Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Campbell Wilson, alleging that the airline management is "intimidating and coercing" some of their members to extend flight duty timings beyond the prescribed limits.

The letter to Campbell was also marked to Tata Group and Air India Chairman N Chandrasekaran, among others.

"We wish to bring to your attention a matter of utmost importance concerning potential coercive calls related to the extension of Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL)," the pilots unions said in the communication to the members.

Such practices are not only "unethical" but also raise serious concerns about the well-being of our members and the integrity of our organisation, they said.

In order to address this issue promptly, the unions said, "we kindly request that if any pilot receives such a call, they immediately bring it to the notice of ICPA and IPG for thorough investigation and appropriate action for onward submission to the regulatory authority".

ICPA represents pilots of narrow-body aircraft while IPG has members from the wide-body fleet of Air India.

Aviation regulator DGCA earlier this month rolled out revised FDTL norms for pilots that provide for increased weekly rest period, extension in night hours by an hour and just two night landings as against six earlier.

The revised norms will come into effect from June 1.