The striking Air India pilots seem to have got some support from the labour ministry, which feels that the termination of 101 pilots is ?illegal?. A senior labour ministry official, close to the development, said that ?the company cannot terminate any employee when the conciliation process is on?.
As per Section 33 of the Industrial Dispute Act 1947, no employer shall, during the pendency of any conciliation proceeding in respect of an industrial dispute, take any action against any protected workman concerned in such dispute.
The provisions of the Act make it mandatory that ?no such workman shall be discharged or dismissed, unless he has been paid wages for one month and an application has been made by the employer to the authority before which the proceeding is pending for approval of the action taken by the employer”.
The labour ministry official said the AI management has not sought any approval from the conciliatory authority. ?They have not sent any application seeking approval. The management has also not been cooperating much. There have been times when there has been no representatives from the management during these talks,? said the official.
The Air India strike is on for more than a month now. The carrier has already sacked 101 members of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) and has de-recognised the union.
When contacted, an AI official said pilots were sacked before the conciliation talks began. ?For those who were terminated later, according to Supreme Court norms, there is no need to seek approval from the conciliatory agency if there is an abandonment of services, which is exactly what the pilots did,? said the official, who did not want to be named. The carrier has, so far sacked 101 pilots and has made it clear that the terminated pilots would not be taken back.