IA, AI merger: Management issues seniority lists of officers

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Integration of human resources of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India has finally begun after five years of their merger, with the management coming out with seniority lists of about 4,500 officers.

Seniority lists of 4,457 officers of the non-technical cadre in various departments have been uploaded on the merged carrier's internal website as per the recommendations of Dharmadhikari Committee, senior airline officials said.

The lists have the merged seniority of employees of erstwhile IA and erstwhile AI as on April 1, 2007.

"The merged seniority lists of pilots and engineers are yet to be prepared as some technical issues associated with it need to be sorted out," one of the officials said.

The employees can go through these lists and point to anomalies within 10 days from the date of its publication, they said, adding that representations received after the deadline would not be considered.

Since the 2007 merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, there has been a lot of bad blood and human resource problems in the merged entity, leading to strikes on certain occasions.

Pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots' Guild (IPG), representing cockpit crew of erstwhile Air India, had gone on a 58-day strike on the issue of career progression.

Their counterparts from erstwhile Indian Airlines, led by Indian Commercial Pilots Association, had also struck work last year on same issues.

Though the top-level management was merged earlier itself, integration of the middle and lower level management and employees of Grade I and II was not carried out so far.

While now the seniority lists of executive-level officials have been put up, in the next phase the list of other staff, including Grade I and Grade II employees, would be brought out, the officials said.

The common seniority list of pilots, engineers and cabin crew would be brought out later as their incentives are determined by the market and fall beyond the guidelines of the Department of Public Enterprises, meant for public sector employees.

For this, the nod of the Union Cabinet is required. Till date, issues relating to pay, allowances and career progression of these sections has remain unresolved, they said.