#air_idia #imp_new #cabincrew #panga #trouble #bigmess Air Indias (AI) move to recruit more cabin crew has turned out to be a major embarrassment as around 200 hostesses selected in August have either not reported for duty or have left their two-week training midway. Top airline officials told Mail Today that of the 225 cabin crew, largely comprising hostesses, hardly 30 have joined. Subsequently, a desperate Air India advertised for 161 cabin crew posts-131 hostess and 30 flight pursers-on October 29. Unlike the earlier recruitment, the airline has this time invited freshers who would join as trainee on contract for a limited term of five years with a monthly salary of Rs 10,000. Most of the trained 225 cabin crew had come from private airlines and took a pay cut to join AI hoping that they would be flown on wide-bodies Boeing 787 Dreamliners as advertised by the carrier in August. However, they were deployed on narrow-bodies Airbus A320s. The air hostesses complained that they had joined despite a salary cut hoping that by flying on Dreamliners, as per the advertisement, would help them promote their career as they could have later on moved to foreign airlines, which pay more, an AI official said. Chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan admitted that several crew members did not turn up. The salary being offered to these trained hostesses was Rs 25,000 per month while they were earning more than double at private airlines, an airline official told Mail Today. Unlike full-time cabin crew of AI, new contractual entrants will not get medical benefits, flats at Air India Colony, provident fund, gratuity and free tickets. Moreover, the salary being offered to contrac-tual cabin crew is way less than the industry average, one of the major deterrents AI faces during recruit-ment. It is really difficult to actually manage on such a meagre salary. As an air hostess, you have to spend extra to maintain your looks. Even if we go to a beautician once a month, it takes around Rs 3,000, said a hostess. AI had withdrawn the kit maintenance allowance to its hostess in 1994.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 18:16:33 +0000
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