Get fit to fly, Air India tells uncle-aunty crew: Employees say airline can't force fitness test on them as it has not paid for their gym memberships for over a decade now

Air India has ordered its 1,600 air hostesses and stewards over the age of 40 to appear for a medical fitness examination before March 31 or face being grounded. Those below 40, meanwhile, have to undergo the examination before their next birthday.

The move has sparked anger among the airline's senior crew members, many of whom are overweight and suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure - all ailments that could lead to them being derostered.

Refusing to comply with the order, dated February 28, senior staff have through their union shot a letter to the airline’s chairman and managing director, Rohit Nandan. They have pointed to a 1999 agreement between the airline and the union, under which the airline is supposed to provide health club facilities to its employees.

“Air India had tied up with Talwalkars, but the deal fell through in 1999 as the management said that at Rs 60,000 a year per employee it was too expensive,” a cabin crew member said.

“Without keeping to their word on providing us with infrastructure to exercise and maintain our health, the management should not force these tests on crew members,” a senior purser said.

Across Air India (domestic and international) and Air India Express, the airline employs about 5,000 cabin crew members.

In the letter, Ashwin Ullalkar, president of the All India Cabin Crew Association, said that introducing the medical examination amounted to changing service conditions, something that the management was not unilaterally empowered to do.

The crew members also accused the management of using DGCA officials to introduce the new medical tests. “We are not a licensed category under the DGCA and hence cannot be governed by their dictates unless they discus with us the modalities for such a medical examination,” the letter reads.

A senior cabin crew member said, “Does this mean that by not evaluating our health parameters so far, the management has been jeopardizing air safety for the past seven years?” Since 1999, there has been no medical examination requirement for cabin crew.

“This is a ploy to ground us as most of us who are over 40 will end up showing ailments that are reason enough for the airline to keep us off duty,” an air-hostess said.

Source:  http://www.mumbaimirror.com