Pension eludes 700 AAI staff yrs after retirement

DELAY Civil aviation ministry yet to resolve the ‘financial impact’ and modalities

EMPLOYEES WONDER WHY GOVT CANNOT GUARANTEE THE RETIREMENT BENEFITS DESPITE DEDUCTING THEIR SHARE OF PENSION FROM SALARY

NEW DELHI: Homemaker Sushma Parti’s world crashed when husband Anup Parti died in 2003 before his retirement. And the family pension of the Airports Authority of India’s (AAI) senior fire superintendent was the only hope she had to push on a life without him.

But 14 years on, the 60-year-old widow in New Delhi’s Janakpuri has yet to get the pension she is entitled to.

“I have no other source of income. I am fortunate that my children are looking after me all these years,” Parti said.

Her husband was among 700 civil aviation employees deprived of their retirement benefits because of various reasons, including wrong interpretation of labour laws. There are 1,600 more people working in this government sector, unsure for the past 31 years if they will ever get a pension when they retire.

The civil aviation ministry decided in October 2016 to honour its staff’s pension entitlement. But it is yet to resolve the “financial impact” and “modalities of disbursal”.

The employees alleged that government is delaying the process deliberately. They wondered why the government cannot guarantee the retirement benefits despite deducting their share of the pension from the salary.

The ministry’s official spokesperson was not available for comments on Tuesday as she was travelling.

But a source said: “We are aware of the issue and trying to resolve it in the interest of the employees as soon as possible.”

It is taking time to fix the modalities because there are different categories of employees and retired people such as ranks and pay scale, he added.

These employees joined the National Airport Authority (NAA) in 1986, the predecessor of the AAI, on deputation from the civil aviation department and the director general of civil aviation (DGCA). In 1989, they became permanent employees of the NAA.

When the NAA became the AAI in 1995, they were absorbed in the new entity.

Their transfer was governed by an official memorandum of July 5, 1989, from the department of pension and pensioners’ welfare, a constitutional agency under the Prime Minister.

“The pension of employees having less than 10 years of service at the time of transfer was never under question until August 14, 1995, when the AAI issued an allegedly illegal office memorandum,” said S Bhattacharya, a former executive director of the air navigation services.

This memorandum contradicted the terms and condition of absorption issued by the pensioners’ welfare department on July 5, 1989, said the retired man fighting for his pension.

The employees filed petitions in courts, approached the National Human Rights Commission, gave representations to the ministry and wrote letters to the Prime Minister.

The pensioners’ welfare department settled the case in favour of the employees on August 30, 2010.

It said “employees transferred en mass to airports authority … are eligible for pension under government rules” after retirement from the AAI. But the civil aviation ministry has been allegedly delaying obeying the order.

RN Choubey, secretary in the ministry, wrote this July to his counterpart pensioner’s welfare department, asking for more time for deliberations and consultations.

“Imagine the extent of neglect that even after realising the mistake, the ministry is not showing any urgency. It still wants to deliberate on the issue. That’s a pity,” said SK Mansukhani, another man waiting for his pension.

Like Patri’s husband, more than a hundred employees had died — mostly after retirement and some when they were still working. Their widows and dependents are facing deep financial constraints.

“There are many widows finding it difficult to make ends meet and it’s a matter of shame for the government that it lacks concern for families of those who held important positions in the aviation sector and showed professional integrity through their career,” Parti said.