National carrier, Air India (AI), has terminated 200 of its cabin crew, and refused to accept the withdrawal of resignations of 50 pilots amid the raging coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak that has roiled the civil aviation sector.

These 200 cabin crew were recently inducted in the airline on a contractual basis.

AI has had around 4,000 cabin crew and 1,800 pilots on its rolls until April.

The 50 AI pilots had resigned from the airline after securing jobs in private airlines before the pandemic struck India.

Their job offers were withdrawn because the Covid-19-induced lockdown restrictions led to the suspension of domestic and international flights since end-March and adversely impacted the civil aviation sector.

The domestic flights have since resumed limited operations.

The 50 AI pilots wanted to withdraw their resignations, but the national carrier’s management turned down their proposal and asked them to serve out their notice period.

The decision was taken after the AI management met representatives of the pilots’ unions met on Wednesday (July 8).

A senior airline pilot said, “The management needs to look at these employees with some compassion amid these hard times.”

Earlier, HT had reported in May that the wide-body (Boeing) pilots union, Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), the narrow-body (Airbus) pilots union, Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), had questioned AI authorities about the measures taken while operating cargo flights during lockdown restrictions to ensure the generation of maximum revenue.

On July 6 (Monday), the unions wrote a letter to Rajiv Bansal, the interim chairman-cum-managing director (CMD), urging the management to ensure that a fixed percentage is cut from an employee’s salary based on the income and also implement a monthly leave without pay (LWP) for all the staff because of truncated operations due to the viral outbreak.

The unions also demanded that 25% of their pending dues be cleared immediately and they are allowed to quit their jobs with immediate effect in case the LWP is not implemented for all the employees.

A senior airline official said layoffs were a new normal because the pandemic has heightened AI woes.

“The letter has set things in motion. The heads of departments have failed to tackle the situation and stand up for the employees, who have been asked to leave,” the official added.

“The crisis has deepened because a limited number of flights are operating due to the pandemic. The management needs to study the non-operating and operating departments and reduce the workforce accordingly amid an acute cash crunch,” said a retired AI official.

AI spokesperson, however, refused to comment on the stand-off between the employees and the management.

“These are internal issues on which we won’t like to make any comment,” he said.