Close on the heels of the cabin crew going on mass leave to attend interviews at rival airlines, now the technicians at Indigo, in Hyderabad and Delhi, have called in sick en masse.
They failed to report for night duty on 8 July, 2022 and the following morning, that is, 9 July, 2022, calling in sick.
Earlier, on 2 July, 2022, the cabin crew had called in sick, en masse, causing hundreds of flights to be delayed and inconveniencing thousands of passengers. It was later reported in the media that these cabin crew members had taken leave to attend interviews at Air India, which is currently on a hiring spree.
The technicians and aircraft-maintenance engineers at IndiGo have been unhappy with their salaries and their taxing working hours. Apparently, their grievances and complaints are not being addressed by IndiGo, and therefore, they decided to report sick.
However, this time, flights and operations were not impacted by the absence of the protesting technicians.
The pilots and other staff of the Airline had been disgruntled for the continued pay cuts. These cuts were imposed during the pandemic and had continued even after travel had started picking up.
However, post the protest by cabin crew, IndiGo had given a salary hike to its pilots. This was the second time it had offered a hike over a period of four months.
Along with the hike in pilots’ salaries, the Airline is also making required changes to its human resource policies, in preparation for the heavy traffic it expects during the festival season.
The Airline is undergoing a management rejig and is also working to increase its capacity by 60 per cent.
