Air India: Employees Raise Concerns Over Rest, Privacy As New Policy Asks For Room Sharing

In view of the Tata-group-owned Air India's proposal of implementing the revisioned policies from December 1 where a certain group of crew members will be asked to share rooms during layovers, several employees have reportedly raised privacy and fatigue-related concerns, as per reports.

The policy will apply to all airlines in the Air India Group, which also includes Vistara, Air India Express, and Air India Express (AIX) Connect.

Privacy, rest, health, performance: Many issues raised

According to a report by The Hindu, several employees in an e-mail to CEO Campbell Wilson and Chief Human Resource Officer Ravindra Kumar, have reportedly highlighted how the revised policy will potentially impact their rest requirements leading to impacts on their health and performance.

The employees emphasized the need for personal space to rest following extra-long flight hours and irregular shifts of up to 18 hours as the crew members have varying flight schedules.

Considering the importance of rest, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has already framed rules for rest timings to rule out the fatigue-related risks that could impact the safety of flight operations. According to DGCA, rest is defined as “a continuous, uninterrupted and defined period of time, subsequent to or prior to duty, during which a cabin crew member is free from all duties, standby and reserve.”

As per the report by The Hindu, Arun Kapur, former safety and emergency procedures instructor for cabin crew training at Air India said, "It is not kind, it is not safe. Different people like to wind down after work in their own way. Someone may like to watch television, another person may want to read. ”

Room sharing, allowances: Air India's new rules

As Air India is set to introduce a revised policy for the cabin crew members of domestic and international flights from December 1, certain sections of the crew members excluding in-flight managers and executives, are now asked to share rooms during layovers, as per PTI.

Adding more to the list of changes, it has also been told that allowances for cabin crew of international flights will now be increased from USD 75-125 bracket to USD 85-135 bracket. The per night allowance of rupees 1,000 for the cabin crew of domestic flights remains unchanged. However, they will be entitled to a support allowance of Rs 1,000 per night.

According to an airline there is a need to harmonise the policies for employees of both the Air India and Vistara as the merger is now getting formalised.

"As part of that exercise, we have communicated the changes applicable to Air India employees. The revised compensation and benefits continue to be competitive and benchmarked to industry standards," the spokesperson told PTI in a statement.

The changes in the policy came against the backdrop of a section of Air India Express cabin crew members seeking redressal of their HR issues under the labour law. The case is in progress before the Central Labour Commissioner.

Moreover, the Air India spokesperson also mentioned about the airline introducing a performance-linked compensation and benefits policy for all employees in April 2023.