Air India Express has fired at least 30 employees, mostly cabin crew, over mass sick leave amid flight cancellations.
This comes a day after nearly 300 private airline employees called in sick and switched off their phones, leading to large-scale flight disruptions.
According to the termination letter issued to the employees, the Airline says the mass leave “clearly points to a pre-meditated and concerted abstention from work without any justifiable reason”.
Further, Air India Express has given an ultimatum to the employees to join work by Thursday evening or face action.
Since Tuesday night, over 100 international and domestic flights were cancelled by the airline.
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Reports said 74 flights were canceled Thursday.
The cancellations have snowballed into a crisis for the budget airline, a subsidiary of Air India, owned by the Tata group.
The employees have been protesting against the new employment terms and alleged lack of equality in the treatment of staff.
As a result, the federal civil aviation ministry has sought a report from Air India Express on the flight cancellations and asked the airlines to ensure passenger facilities as per the norms laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
