Air India Express has begun laying off cabin crew members who participated in Wednesday’s mass sick leaves, which forced the airline to cancel at least 86 flights and disrupt operations until May 13th.
The terminations follow the submission of a termination letter to at least 25 employees who participated in the mass leaves. 327 senior crew members had reported being “sick” a few hours before their flights and had switched off their phones.
The letter stated that the overwhelming number of crew members participating in the sick leaves indicated a “pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason” and constituted a violation of employee contracts. The layoffs are effective immediately.
The flight cancellations will continue on Thursday, with more than 70 services affected. Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh stated that the strike did not represent the majority of cabin crew employees.
Air India Express is the second Tata Group airline to face employee protests in recent months. Last month, Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, also canceled flights due to crew unavailability. Vistara was later forced to scale down operations after pilots called in sick en masse.
