AIASL to employ relatives of staff lost to COVID-19

Air India Airport Services (AIASL), which is Air India’s subsidiary looking into ground handling, will be offering employment opportunities to one family member each of those employees who have lost their lives to COVID-19.

This was revealed by AIASL following the death of an Air India pilot, who retired in April this year, and passed away less than two months later, on June 5, supposedly due to COVID-19. The unions had demanded that one member of the family of the retired employee be given a job, even though the family is not eligible for a job.

Surprised that the staff of Air India and its subsidiaries have been left out of the schemes announced by the Government, and are not part of the welfare schemes of the airline either, the general secretary of Air India’s largest employee union, Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), had sent a formal request to the Airline’s chairman and managing director, to include AI employees in the medical insurance cover for Covid-19 frontline workers.

As per the notice from the personnel dept, AIASL has decided that it will provide a suitable job to one member each of the families of all employees of AIASL, Air India or its subsidiaries, if they happen to dies due to the coronavirus. This support, in terms of a job, will be extended on compassionate or humanitarian grounds.

It was also clarified that the employment will be provided in keeping with the terms of engagement of AIASL, and only at the airports served by AIASL, which means about 81 airports across India.

The demand for insurance cover for Air India staff as well as its subsidiaries is justified and fair, considering that during countrywide lockdown following the pandemic, AIASL staff continued to work, handling approx. 1,895 flights between March 25 and June 4. These employees have provided valuable support to cargo operations under the Government’s regional connectivity scheme, Udey Desh Ka Aam Naagarik (UDAN) and the Vande Bharat mission, under which thousands of Indians were evacuated and brought back home.