The cabin crew union of Air India Express has said that all members who reported sick have rejoined duty. However, a statement by the Air India Express Employees Union (AIXEU) said that the staff were still marked as 'on sick leave' due to a glitch in the scheduling software.
In a release on Sunday, the union said all the cabin crew who had reported sick have joined back and "as such there is no delay on the part of the cabin crew". "All the cabin crew members who reported sick have joined their duty by May 11, 2024," it said.
AIXEU also apologised for the inconvenience caused due to the staff.
With the protesting staff rejoining duty, the airline is slowly restoring its flights and stabilising the network, PTI quoted an unnamed official on Sunday. The official added that the flights are being slowly restored and stabilisation of the network is expected by Tuesday morning.
There was no official comment from Air India Express yet.
The Tata Group-owned airline, which operates around 380 services daily, had to cancel over 80 flights on May 8 after the cabin crew members reported sick in mass. Flights continued to be disrupted over the next few days leaving nearly 15,000 passengers stranded.
The strike by a section of cabin crew was to protest against the alleged mismanagement at the airline. Following this, the company had sacked over 25 employees.
However, the strike was called off after meetings were held by the chief labour commissioner in the national capital. The meeting was attended by representatives of the airline and the AIXEU. The carrier also withdrew termination letters issued to 25 cabin crew following a conciliation meeting.
However, putting the cabin crew members back to work takes time due to
of technicalities related to rostering and re-rostering. Some time will also be consumed in the medical check-up of the cabin crew who reported back to work, besides working out the entire duty roster.
