Mumbai: In a period of one week, 13 Flight Operation Inspectors have resigned in protest against the aviation regulator’s decision to post them away from their homes in Delhi to bases in Mumbai and Chennai.
The letters sent by these inspectors appealed to the director-general to cancel their transfers and allow them to work out of Delhi, failing which, they said, the letters should be viewed as resignation notices.Â
In the last one year the DGCA recruited 50 current and former airline pilots as FOIs, while the regulator got them trained for carrying out jobs that demanded technical expertise like airline surveillance, clearing airline pilots as aircraft examiners and instructors etc.
Currently, all FOIs are based in Delhi, so most of the inspections are carried out on flights that originate from Delhi. Flights operated in places like Assam, Andhra Pradesh, etc, hardly come under surveillance. Then again, there are airline training centres in cities other than Delhi and so it is pertinent to have FOIs based elsewhere too.Â
In the last one week, DGCA gave transfer letters, and about 12 FOIs were asked to move to Mumbai and another dozen to Chennai. Those who have their homes in Mumbai or Chennai have not protested against the transfers. The director-general was not available for comment.Â
From the DGCA point of view, the conditional resignations are violation of the three-year contract it entered with these FOIs.
“The contract specifies FOIs can be posted anywhere. They were informed about this during interviews as well. They readily agreed to that condition during the recruitment process,” an official said. “In fact, quite a few pilots did not take up the FOI job because of this condition,” he added.Â
From the FOIs viewpoint, the manner in which these transfers have come is unjust.
An airline pilot said the transfer letters came suddenly in the last one week. We have been asked to join at the new base from June 1 onwards. That is too short a notice. DGCA does not provide for accommodation. Many FOIs have children studying in schools and colleges. It is not possible to move cities at such short notice.
A majority of FOIs are in their forties and fifties, with a few very experienced ones over 60 years old.Â