CITU general secretary, Tapan Sen, lodged a complaint with the union secretary of labour and employment and the chief labour commissioner (central), against the management of Air India. He urged them to intervene and resolve the issue of Air India employees who were forced to go on compulsory leave without payment.

Tapan Sen, in his complaint filed on July 19, said that the Air India Limited had unilaterally altered the service conditions of its employees and imposed provisions of forced compulsory leave without pay. He said that the action of management of a government-owned company of introducing the system of ‘Leave without Pay’ for six months to five years on application by an employee is an anti-employee and unprofessional approach. He said that the system would neither address the problem of redundancy, if at all it is there, nor its financial and operational efficiency; such a step deserves to be reversed forthwith.

He added that the Air India management violates the existing statutes on labour including the Industrial Disputes Act in altering the service conditions of employees unilaterally, thereby rendering itself unlawful. He said that it is an act of gross transgression of the existing rights of the employees as defined by the service rules of the permanent employees of a public sector company like the Air India and urged the government authorities to intervene and direct airlines management to withdraw the order.