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June 1, 2024
1. Hon'ble Minister Civil Aviation
Government of India,
Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan,
Safdarjung Airport,
New Delhi – 110003
2. Respected Shri Ratan N Tata
Chairman Emeritus
Tata Group
Mumbai.
3. Shri N. Chandrasekaran
Chairman
Air India
Bombay House
24 Homi Mody Street
Mumbai 400001.
4. Shri Wilson Campbell
CEO
Air India
309 NH 48, Block A
Sector 30 Gurugram Haryana.
Subject: Comprehensive Appeal for the Air Passage Benefits for Retired Air India Employees
Hon'ble Sir,
We, the community of employees who retired from Air India and Air India group of companies and its subsidiaries write to you with deep concern and humility to brief you on the bare facts which have not come to your notice thus far and to seek your intervention in a matter that affects not only our well-being but also the sanctity of the commitments made to us by our employer, Air India, a national carrier and a Central Government's wholly-owned PSU. Air India was sold as per the decision of the government not as a distress sale but to keep Air India’s huge assets of approximately 5 lakh crores put to the service of the nation so that the National Carrier runs sustainably and fulfills the joint commitments envisioned by the legendary first Chairman JRD Tata and the Government of India to this great nation.
We are proud of being retired employees of Air India and we cherish its legacy. For decades Air India has been the barometer of the progress and success of India. Air India always served the nation as the second line of Defence during wars, the worst of crises, evacuations, calamities, and national emergencies. To say that most of the development of civil aviation in India is a gift of Air India to this nation would be true. It was Air India and Indian Airlines that operationalized every airport for the first time by operating unprofitable flights to those unknown sectors and connecting them to the world map.
1. Profound Concerns and Urgency
Lately, Air India’s journey from a PSU to its acquisition by Tata Sons in 2022 vis-à-vis its impact on retirement benefits was neither studied nor assessed by Air India or the Government before the privatization. If it had been assessed, there would have been ‘no ambiguity’ left in the Sale Purchase documents. Primarily, it caused an ambiguity in the Share Purchase Agreement (SPA) details, particularly concerning the travel benefits of the retired employees which were kept in the grey area and are a matter of grave and immediate concern. This ambiguity has been further widened into recent drastic reductions in Air Passage benefits of retirees at the same time promising much greater benefits for the serving employees. This has severely impacted our post-retirement lives, compromising not only our financial security but also our ability to maintain vital family and social connections. These connections were a significant consideration in our decision to join and serve Air India, foregoing other opportunities. The passage benefits, a fundamental aspect of our service agreement, have been slashed, undermining a key factor in our decision to join Air India in the first place. (To study the aspect of assessing the complete impact on retirees’ passage benefits, our community is conducting an in-depth study by field experts which shall be reinforced by an independent social audit and The Approach Paper can be accessed at https://airindiacollective.org/projects).
2. Legal Grounds, Precedents and International Conventions
Our entitlement to Air Passage benefits extends beyond mere privilege; it constitutes an earned right based on our dedicated service and it is neither a bounty nor a prize. This view is supported by established legal precedents. The facility of Air Passage is not merely incidental but a right earned through our unwavering dedication and service to Air India. The High Court of Delhi case, H.M.R Rao vs Union of India and Amr. (16 November 1995 - Equivalent Citation. 1995 ILR19), has established that air passage becomes an inalienable right upon retirement, precluding any unilateral withdrawal by the employer. The Supreme Court rulings, such as in the case of State of Punjab vs. Gurdev Singh, and High Court rulings, notably H.M.R. Rao vs Union of India in November 1995, have consistently recognized retirement benefits as statutory rights earned through service. These rights are further safeguarded by Article 298 of the Constitution.
It is also a settled law that a company is a perpetual entity and its sale does not allow the elimination of pre-existing liabilities or the disregarding of employee rights that were already earned. The new owner is bound by these obligations. When a company is sold the new owner takes all existing liabilities of the company. The Principle of ‘successor liability’ dictates that the new owner assumes the liabilities of the acquired company. The liabilities do not disappear even if the sale contract tries to absolve the new owner. Rights earned by the employees are sacrosanct. Therefore, the rights earned by the employees cannot be reduced at any time.
An IATA (International Air Transport Association) resolution 788 is followed by all airlines world over. As per the resolution, "Staff travel is a benefit for (retired) airline employees, travel industry employees, their family members or close friends (often called "buddy passes"). Staff travel tickets can be purchased at a fraction of the costs of a standard ticket, but to be used on unsold empty seats." As per IATA resolution 788, retired or existing staff of an airline are entitled to reciprocal travel privileges with partner airlines also.
3. Historical Context and Ethical Considerations
The "Air Passage" Policy has always evolved on an upward scale under the chairmanship of the legendary JRD Tata as the 1st Chairman of the then glorious Air India and later as a PSU to date. It is ironic and disheartening that under the new regime of Tata Sons, the policy has regressed for the first time, which is not only unexpected but ethically concerning. You may appreciate that the entitlement of Air Passages is the lone connection that describes our belonging to Air India and that is also being diluted.
4. Parity, Priority, and Vagaries of Subject to Load Travel
Historically, parity has always been maintained in conferring air passages between the serving employees and the retired employees but this is for the first time ‘NO PARITY’ is being maintained. While against serving employees who are being given 14 passages, retired are being offered 4 passages only. Secondly, retired senior citizens have been compartmentalized into the ‘LAST PRIORITY’. The priority of FIRST-CUM-FIRST-SERVE has also been REMOVED. Ethically speaking, world airlines offers unlimited seats to retirees, families, and friends and offer them seats with dignity and honor with priority but AI retired employees have been kept ‘LAST IN THE QUEUE’. Understand this from our perspective that a seat on an aircraft is a perishable commodity that earns no revenue if it is empty and only empty seats are offered as air passages to the retired. But prioritizing serving employees of all the Tata-run airlines over and above all Air India retirees, somehow our chances of getting an empty seat have been embargoed. We all appreciate aggressive campaigns to win over frequent flyers and offer them last-minute empty seats and upgrades and pickup of unplanned cargo payloads but all this if done inorganically keeps retirees guessing if one can get to the flight or not.
According to a Passage Audit conducted by our colleagues in erstwhile Indian Airlines, alarmingly it was found out that only 1.5% of retirees used the passage facilities in the 90s. We are sure that this figure continues to remain minuscule as against the pax load even today because of factors like (a) Unconfirmed seats (b) Subject to Load flights (c) Frequent Offloading (d) Confirmation of seats in less than an hour (e) Last-minute-type bid to pick up more pax and cargo payload and (f) General fragilities of old age-the elderlies, therefore, stay away from the unconfirmed flights because of fear of deboarding. However, a minuscule percentage of retired employees do take a risk to travel to confront the vagaries of Subject to Load empty seats, and once in a while, they succeed when a flight is widely open as if won a bounty. If a retiree is not that lucky to get the seat and travels to the destination by buying a paid ticket then he is also barred to use the flight back on his SOL passage because ELT policy has added to the woes by not allowing out-of-sequence coupons.
5. Consequential Issues Inviting Comprehension
1. While in AI we were offered four seats on a Confirmed basis but that practice has also been discontinued under this new ELT Policy.
2. The right earned by the retired employee is not shared with the spouse now after his demise. The spouse of the retiree has been denied passage rights.
3. Retirees of Air India once posted in several group companies of Air India like AITSL, AIESL, and others are being denied travel passages and ZED Discounted tickets on other airlines in violation of established travel codes. in fact, at the time of such transfer/deputation in their terms of transfer/deputation it was mentioned that all benefits of Air India staff will be extended to them.
4. Retirees of Air India who had taken VRS as per VRS terms that entitled them the right to passage are denied passage. When Air India entitles them the passages and they were being issued passages earlier during their employment, post VRS they cannot be denied if the VRS is forced on them. Secondly those who were entitled to passages before disinvestment they should continue to get passages since their VRS entitled them to get passages.
5. During the transition to ELT, from September 2023 to March 2024, tickets were not issued in place of that 4 tickets were offered to be utilized only within April-May 2024 and the majority got them expired due to undue delays in operationalizing the system online.
6. Retirees are not being issued Passage Accounts who have successfully submitted all details are not being sent Welcome Mail.
7. Retirees who could not send their details because of digital illiteracy, medical conditions, remote locations, and inability to fill in online details are not allowed to create Passage Accounts.
8. Adding to the woes of diluting the Air Passage Scheme, the new ELT policy also eliminated our chance to use out-of-sequence which should begin again.
9. Adding to the woes for senior management retirees Upgrade Entitlements have been changed from AGM to DGM thus depriving retired AGMs after their retirement.
6. Current Policy Shift and Its Implications
The "Employee Leisure Travel Policy" (ELT) for Retired Employees issued in February 2024 by Air India Management under TATA Sons has severely curtailed these benefits to a mere four passages with stringent conditions. This reduction imposes a significant financial burden and impedes our capacity to foster essential familial and social ties. We were assured of facilities that included free/concessional passages, at the time of our retirement, as confirmed by a letter from CMD IC (copy attached). Until September 30th, 2023, and beyond 12 months post-disinvestment, we were entitled up to the 24 annual air passages, as outlined in the Passage Regulations (Al-Policy/HR-Welfare/F-4/319 dated 27.03.2017). The spouses of deceased employees were entitled to 50% passages, as affirmed by the High Court of Delhi in W.P ©️7634/2013 decided on 04.04.2019 (copy attached).
7. Accountability and Request for Action
Both the Government, during the divestment of Air India to Tata Sons, and the Air India Management under Tata Sons are accountable for safeguarding these rights that we had earned and accrued as a statutory right.
8. Our Plea
(i) The ELT facility is an earned right, integral to our terms of employment, and its unilateral alteration is a breach of trust and contractual obligations. The revised policy has placed an undue financial burden on us, hindering our ability to maintain essential familial and social connections. Our pension scheme has already run into the farcical end and even after paying for it every month in the entire job, the pension has eluded us and we don’t get any pension. Air Passage is the only ray of hope of survival so we can travel on empty seats and that is also being taken away. We seek your intervention to restore the passage benefits to their original state, as was the practice before the disinvestment.
(ii) We request Air India management to grant us absolute parity with serving employees and restore the policy of first-cum-first-serve OR accord FIRST PRIORITY to retirees on first-cum-first-serve basis in travel over and above the serving employees keeping in view our age and fragilities to withstand last minute type of denials at the airport.
(iii) We remain steadfast in our conviction that a resolution can be attained that upholds the sanctity of the legal principles established in the H.M.R. Rao case and ensures equitable treatment for retired Air India employees.
(iv) We respectfully urge your intervention to ensure Air India honors its historical commitments and legal obligations:
(A) Reinstate the passage benefits as previously stipulated.
(B) If the management wants to give parity since Air India serving and retired always had parity and now management has reduced the quantum of passages for serving employees, we the retirees will abide by mangement's decision to keep parity with serving employees as far as quantum of passages is concerned.
(C) Continue granting 50% passages to spouses of deceased employees (as per the High Court of Delhi ruling in W.Pc7634/2013) and also Continuation of passages to spouse and children of the retiree should continue.
(D) Resolve issues stated above in Point no.5 titled ‘Other Consequential Issues Inviting Comprehension’ which are the offshoot consequential issues that emerged out of the transition into the new ELT Policy.
(E) Accord priority of travel to Retirees keeping in view fragile age, medical conditions, emergency travel, familial responsibilities, and well-being. We request you grant some confirmed passages as earlier before disinvestment, we were given FOUR confirmed passages.
(F) Accord priority of travel to Retirees keeping in view their fragilities over and above the serving employees.
(G) Accord firm UPGRADES on concessional payment to retirees not at par with paid passengers. This will earn lot of revenue on free seats.
(H) Make a fairer First-cum-First-Served policy for acceptance of travel that assigns priority number at the time of booking/listing. Such priority numbers be followed on Check-in Counters. Listing of Retirees on First-Cum-First-Serve basis should also be digitally monitored online and implemented in true letter and spirit at Check-in Counters.
(I) ELT portal should carry the details of empty seats, first-cum-first-serve priorities, and manifest the EXACT FINAL POSITION at least FOUR HOURS before the flight so that Retirees can take a chance. Also to support last-minute-type revenue adhocism at airports a policy be formulated to Release Empty Seats to all SOLs at least two hours before the flight.
(J) Out-of-sequence coupons should be allowed.
We humbly request that you graciously ensure Air India honors its historical commitments and the legal rights of its retired employees. We kindly implore you to reconsider the revised ELT policy, striking a balance between the company's operational needs and the dignity and well-being of all those who dedicated their careers to Air India before its disinvestment. Our appeal is rooted in the principles of fairness, transparency, and respect for the legal rights of senior citizens who have selflessly served the national carrier. We have every confidence that your intervention will lead to a just and equitable resolution, upholding the integrity of our legal system and the highest standards of ethical corporate governance.
We are still a strong workforce to be reckoned with and will continue to support Air India forever and will stand up to every call when the need arises and work to bring goodwill to Air India. Thank you for your attention
Yours sincerely (on behalf of Air India Collective)
(ARUN K MALHOTRA) (MUNISH GUPTA) (ANAND K. MALIK)
Convenor Co-Convenor Co-Convenor
Attachments:
- Copy of CMD IC's letter confirming free/concessional passage
- High Court of Delhi's ruling in W.P(c)7634/2013
- Passage Regulations (Al-Policy/HR-Welfare/F-4/319 dated 27.03.2017)
-Along with all the comments of Retirees
SIGN THE PETITION BY FILLING THE DETAILS AND CLICK 'SIGN THE PETITION'
Air India Collective
ONLINE PETITION FOR RESTORATION OF PASSAGE FACILITY OF RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF AIR INDIA
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Air India Collective
(A Welfare Community of Air India Family)
convenor@airindiacollective.org
+919811793027