Airport workers threaten agitation

A joint forum of the Airports Authority Employees’ Union, Airports Authority Officers’ Association and Indian Airports Kamgar Union have urged the Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman to convene a meeting “to discuss the concerns in details over the handing over of six airports to Gujarat-based conglomerate Adani Group,” PTI has reported. 

Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), through competitive bidding, has won the rights to operate and maintain airports in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Mangaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Guwahati through public-private partnership (PPP) model.

In a letter to the AAI chairman, the forum has threatened to resort to agitation this month by holding lunch-hour demonstrations and wearing black badges. 

The employees have termed the move “arbitrary and unilateral” as they claim their concerns were not taken into account before the “hasty” decision was taken. This, they say, has raised concerns among the stakeholders about the future of employees and the impact of privatisation on users and services provided to them. 

Further feeding the anxieties of the forum, former AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra, while leaving office on July 31 had said that the government had plans to exit from 20-25 more airports in the next phase of privatisation. 

Representative image. Photo: PTI

“We sincerely hope that a sympathetic consideration of the concerns of employees will be taken care of by your good self and (the) government/AAI and (you) will convene a meeting of the forum to discuss the concerns in details and restrain from indulging in privatisation or leasing of any other airports of the authority,” a letter from the forum to the AAI chairman said.