Other than the evident impact of monetary loss to Jet Airways that was allegedly to the tune of Rs 160 crore and a tarnishing of the brand, the mass sick leave that 300-plus Jet pilots went on till September 12 raises fundamental questions of ethicality. The incident resulted in uncalled for stress and inconvenience to thousands of customers for five days because over 150 domestic and international were grounded per day.

An ethical examination of the incident would, however, raise uncomfortable questions. What type of medical ailment did the pilots report? Media reports claimed that pilots reported mental stress illness, which had built up over the months. How could this apply at the same time to over 300 pilots? Who were the doctors that issued these medical certificates? Did the doctors actually examine the pilots or were they in cahoots with the union members? If the ailments and thereby the medical certificates were not genuine, obviously the doctors were paid to deliver the medical certificates. This is not an uncommon practice in India and has been followed even by civil society, though not with the same level of consequences.

A senior official from the Medical Council of India (MCI) not wanting to be named said that assuming the medical certificates were ?fake?, legal action could have been taken against the pilots and also the doctors who issued the certificates. The official went on to compare MCI with the Supreme Court saying that the governing body could only get involved with such cases of fake medical certificates if a higher appeal were to be made by the parties in question after first submitting an appeal to the state medical legislative. In the case of the Jet pilots, if the company or even customers had approached the state medical legislative in their respective states, the legislative could have conducted an investigation and ensuing report on the legality of the medical certificates issued to the pilots. Hypothetically, if certificates were found illegal and pilots disagreed with the state medical legislatives directives, in their defence they could appeal to the MCI. But the first level of legislation would have to come from the state medical councils.

In the past there have been cases when fake medical certificates have gone against patients. Truckers in Gujarat have reported cases of lorry drivers who manufactured medical certificates diagnosing them with insomnia. Later in their career the diagnosis could go against them as it could prove to be hazardous in the profession.

In the case of Jet Airways, the consumption of the stakeholders and the media was more about the airlines pilots protesting because two to four of their colleagues got sacked for having participated in the formation of the 650-member National Aviators Guild (NAG) in July. The guild was formed allegedly because pilots felt that their contracts were not being honoured by the company?s changing expatriate management.

Interestingly, Jet sacked two of the pilots, Sam Thomas and D Balaram, for helping with the guild but not Girish Kaushik the heavy weight captain behind the ?mass sick leave?. The company?s attention was so diverted by the fact that a union was set up that the means which pilots used to protest were overlooked. In Jet?s case the mass sick leave was an accepted sham and was even referred to as a strike. Finally, the strike was called off on September 12 when up to four of the sacked pilots were reinstated in their jobs on the agreement that a supplementary internal grievance redressal mechanism would exist along side NAG to look into issues raised by pilots and other employees.

But it?s not a case of alls well that ends well. Air India pilots followed suite a few days later when they too reported ?sick? for four days in protest to the proposed changes by management to their ?productivity linked incentives? (PLI). Here, too, less was said about the means that were used to not show up at work as the focus was on damage control. Air India ?strike? ended on September 30 with the government assuring no change to pilots PLI but the incident did as much damage to the beleaguered airline leading to cancellations of 240 flights during the period while possibly the doctors involved are laughing all the way to the bank.

malvika.chandan@expressindia.com