The management of the national airline denies that ad hoc policy decisions and lack of policy direction are the reasons for the impasse. Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Rohit Nandan said that the crisis situation needed to be seen in the larger global context of a crisis in the aviation sector. Asked if there was a need to make the management more professional, he said, I don't think there's any dearth of professionals with the desired expertise within the company. For a proper running of the company, we should look within for talent.
Asked if successive managements had failed in running the company professionally, he said: Well, you have to ask if the recommendations of the professionals were taken on board by the decision-making bodies.
Nandan rejected the argument that the management's decisions were leading to pilots' unions being pitted against each other. We had asked the two unions the IPG and the ICPA to sort out their differences. Regarding the conflict between the pilots about who will be trained on Boeing 787, it could have been solved amicably. There were 12 meetings between the two unions before this agitation began but they could not sort out the differences. Even while the negotiations were on, the IPG went to court against the ICPA.
The management said that salaries of employees had been paid up to February and that productivity-linked incentives had been paid up to January. The management hopes to pay the salaries for March in June.
Sagnik DuttaCOMMents
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