Air India Express Sacks Crew Members Over ‘Premeditated’ Sick Leave

New Delhi: A day after mass leave led to flight disruptions, Tata Group-owned Air India Express fired around 25 of its employees who reported ‘sick’.

“Around 25 employees (cabin crew members) of Air India Express Airlines have been terminated after they didn’t report to work, and due to their behaviour, thousands of passengers suffered. The airline will be issuing a statement in the next 20 minutes”, news agency ANI reported quoting sources.

India Today TV has put the number of crew members, who received the termination notices on Wednesday night, at 30.

Air India Express faced disruptions with over 90 flights being canceled since Tuesday night after over 100 cabin crew members did not report for duty, citing illness as a form of protest against the alleged mismanagement in the airline, impacting around 15,000 passengers.

In the termination letter, sent to one of the employees and widely shared on social media, the airline stated that the cabin crew members reporting sick at “around the same time… clearly points to a premeditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason.”

“Your act of reporting sick for work amounts to a concerted action with a common understanding, to not operate the flight and to disrupt the services of the company. This is not only in violation of the applicable laws but also violates the Air India Express Limited Employees’ Service Rules as applicable to you.”

The emailed statement followed Air India Express CEO Aloke Singh’s announcement that the airline, which operates a significant number of flights to the Gulf, was curtailing flight services until May 13 as a result of cabin crew shortage.

This came a month after Tata Group full-service carrier Vistara witnessed pilot woes, forcing it to temporarily cut down capacity by 10 per cent, or 25-30 flights daily.