When government does business, shortages are never far. And irrationalities abound. In India, unemployment is the biggest issue. Still, all government departments and undertakings have staff shortages. This is because there is no way growth of a business can be projected to any accuracy in advance. By the time shortage of staff is noticed and action initiated for recruitment, it is too late. The recruitment process to any public office has to follow a certain procedure, therefore, the time taken in recruitment is very long, that too if no papers leak or no court cases are filed. By the time recruitment is through, requirement itself increases, and shortage still remains what it was initially.
Had Air India been a private entity, it could have filled vacancies almost on a weekly basis, according to requirement.
And it will not be any surprise if it is discovered that by the time recruitments are through, Air India has lost so much of its business, because of staff shortage created difficulties and hence poor services, that even existing staff has become surplus!
“Meanwhile, the cabin crew shortage that is delaying flights for the past few months may have been due to the airline’s failure to hire airhostesses on time. Sources say the inflight services department (which controls crew training and rostering) had sought hiring of at least 600 cabin crew members over two years ago.
“AI has 3,000 cabin crew on paper. Many of them are on medical leave; some have not turned up for long time and several have clocked the maximum 1,000 flying hours permitted in 12 months. Also, the old planes that have been phased out needed four to five cabin crew while the new ones now joining the fleet need seven to eight. A Dreamliner joins our fleet every couple of months. Many of the crew on contract did not extend their contract with use as they left for greener pastures. With all these factors, AI has a shortage of 300 cabin crew at any given time,” said a source.” (from the news item.)
Read the news item here.
