M. A. Baby, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has written a letter today to the Prime Minister, seeking the PM’s intervention to resolve the issue of AIESL workers and uphold passenger safety
We are herewith releasing the text of the letter for publication.
Shri. Narendra Modi,
Honourable Prime Minister
Government of India
New Delhi
Modiji,
Resolve the issue of AIESL workers and uphold passenger safety
This letter is to apprise you about the continuing sit-in of the workers in front of the MRO facilities of a former Air India subsidiary, AIESL and now a PSU under the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata and Nagpur for the last eight days against the brazen anti-worker policies of the management. Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) operates major Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) facilities across India servicing narrow-body aircraft (Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737) and wide-body aircraft (Boeing 777, 747 and 787 Dreamliner) for domestic and international flights. Thousands of passengers depend daily on the technical expertise and labour of these workers for safe flight operations. In an alarming development, an Air India aircraft from Bengaluru (AI 2802) had to undertake an emergency landing at IGI Airport in Delhi following suspicion of fire in one of the engines yesterday. Air India and many other carriers are dependent upon the MRO facilities of AIESL for their operations. In fact, this issue of air safety was brought to the attention of the Minister for Civil Aviation by Shri. John Brittas MP by a separate letter seeking urgent intervention.
May I now invite your attention to some of the legitimate demands of the workers.
1) Firstly, while clause 7 of the draft model standing orders released by the Government of India on 8th May 2026 clearly states that fixed term workers should receive wages, allowances and benefits not less than permanent workers performing similar work, the workers in AIESL – from engineers to helpers recruited under fixed-term employment — are being paid less than one-third of the salary and benefits of their regular counterparts.
2) The exploitation assumes even more alarming dimensions as the engineers and technicians maintaining aircraft safety are compelled to work 12 to 14 hours
a day while being paid a meagre overtime rate of around Rs 85/- per hour. This is in blatant violation of the recently notified labour code provisions under which overtime work beyond the prescribed working hours must be compensated at double the ordinary wage rate.
3) Instead of addressing the legitimate grievances of the workers, including equal pay for equal work, regularisation, decent working conditions and fair overtime compensation, the management has resorted to intimidation and victimisation. When representatives of the workers met the management to discuss these issues, four union representatives were served termination notices. The ongoing mass sit-in is precisely against this vindictive dismissal and for the settlement of their justified demands.
The AIESL management is not even implementing the directives of the Deputy Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), Nagpur with regard to the present industrial dispute. The Dy. CLC (c) has rightly opined that the termination of worker representatives is anticipated to further widen the rift. Her letter adds that the resignation can’t be denied within the terms of appointment for the four aggrieved employees and ends by warning that her office would be compelled to take action against the AIESL management.
In conclusion, I would request your office to immediately intervene in this matter, considering both the legitimate demands of the workers as well as the larger issue of safety of air passengers.