In the single largest human resources initiative, Air India has cut down the number of recognised unions to two from the earlier 15 through elections held last week. The employees (other than pilots) of the main airline body will now have two recognised representative unions — Air Corporations Employees Union (Kadian-A) and Air India Employees Union. Air India's two subsidiaries — Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) for maintenance repair and overhaul and Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL) for ground handling — would have between them another four recognised unions. The results of the elections are, however subject to the outcome of writ petitions against the process pending with the High Court of Delhi, High Court of Mumbai and Madras High Court. [related-post] A senior executive of the airline said, “Several unions were opposing the unions on fear of being derecognised. Ten court cases were filed across Delhi, Mumbai Chennai High Courts and the Supreme Court. The court did not grant stay and we managed to successfully hold the election last week.” Air India had drawn up a blue-print to rationalise the number of recognised unions in the airline from 15 to two — one union for pilots and the other for all other employees. According to the electoral norms decided upon, any union which gets more than 50 per cent of the votes, it would be recognised by the management as the sole representative union. If, however, a union ends up with less than 50 per cent of the votes, there could be one major and one minor union. The rationalisation of the unions – a proposal mooted by director (personnel) N K Jain - was designed to ensure efficient decision-making during negotiations between the management and union representatives. “Multiplicity of unions leads to conflicting demands, which often comes in the way of fruitful negotiations. Scaling down the number of recognised unions will make way for more efficient decision making within the organisation,” added the executive. The move from Air India draws parallel to similar procedure by the Indian Railways which in 2007 had reduced the number of unions from 34 to two.
