Quit coddling AI employees

Aren't their interests better served in a financially happier environment?

By all accounts, the Air India sale is just a matter of time. The government is actively discussing and finalising the modalities of flogging off the national carrier. More than one person has told me that the sale is to happen in 2018 and if it doesn’t happen in 2018, it probably won’t happen at all. So at least it sounds like there’s some finality to the process.

As the rumblings of the proposed sell-off become louder, the naysayers are waking up. Employee unions appear to have begun their protests. A parliamentary committee has woken up and realised that the country’s national pride is at stake and has asked the government to look for an alternative to the disinvestment of our national carrier which is “our favourite milking cow”, as I see it. 

What is intriguing is the news that the government is considering absorbing Air India employees in other public sector units. It is also considering offering a voluntary retirement scheme for employees. The aviation secretary has gone on record to state that “various options are under consideration to protect the interests of the employees”. 

I have a few questions and some objections to this. Why is the government considering absorbing Air India employees in other public sector units? And which employees precisely? Is it planning to sell the airline without all of its 29,000-odd employees — including pilots, crew, ground staff, managers, directors, administration, peons etc?

I don’t know many bidders who would buy Air India without its commanders and crew so I presume this means a select bunch. Is the government asking employees who are unsure they can survive in a private sector environment to raise their hands? Is the government saying that since you are unused to working, we’ll move you to other enterprises where you don’t need to work? Has the government taken some kind of lifetime guarantee to pamper this set for life?

And what does protecting the interests of employees mean exactly? Do employees gain by continuing to work for the remainder of their working lives in a loss-making company that shows no hope for revival? In an environment full of cynicism and negativity? In an environment where they are always locked in some kind of battle — usually over arrears.

Aren’t the interests of all employees better served in a financially healthier and happier environment? In a company that makes money for a change? Where hard work is rewarded in the usual manner — with promotions, increments, incentives and an occasional recognition of someone’s contribution. 

Over the years, almost anyone within the airline with any understanding of the sector I have spoken to — be it directors, pilots, crew and even secretarial staff — claimed to be keen on seeing the airline being sold.

Their argument is that the crisis they face today is not of their making but a culmination of poor management and several bad decisions — none of which can be blamed on them directly. They argue that first both the government-owned airlines (Air India and Indian Airlines) did not buy new aircraft for years on end and when they did they bought many more than they were equipped to manage. 

If pilots and crew to fly the machines were not available, neither were there enough new routes to ply them on. The result: an expensive resource on the ground or not fully utilised for months at a stretch. Instead of a steady, balanced growth, the airlines got no new planes for years and then a surfeit of them. Its growth plan was devised and executed without keeping the airline’s interests in mind.

To top it all, the merger took the cake and the icing with it. Two very different creatures were suddenly expected to think and act as one. It was unrealistic to expect this and it never happened. Even today, the “us and them” divide is as alive as it was in 2006. It never became “we”. Despite the fact that change is a scary prospect, almost all the employees I speak seem to agree that sale is the only way to go. Are employees really the biggest losers if the national carrier is privatised?

As the naysayers become louder, we – the public — will need to keep an eye and ear out to see where the real opposition is coming from. I for one won’t be surprised if many of those who are leading the sale are the ones most opposed to it. The enemy may well lie within.