Pawan Hans staff oppose hiring of Air Force pilots

Any pilot coming from the Air Force will be joining the company as a copilot and will be trained by us. But they will be paid more than double of what we are earning. SENIOR OFFICIAL, Pawan Hans

MUMBAI: Employees of Pawan Hans have opposed the helicopter services operator’s plan to recruit Indian Air Force (IAF) staff to tide over the shortage of pilots.

The Pawan Hans Pilots Guild (PHPG) had filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court last week against plans to hire IAF pilots at higher salaries than what is being offered to their colleagues with lesser flying hours.

They have complained that their company’s management has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IAF to hire their pilots at high salaries but have not increased flying allowances of their own pilots since 2008, due to which many senior employees had even quit.

In the first hearing on Friday, the court has asked pilots to submit more details on salaries offered to helicopter pilots by private companies. Pawan Hans will have to submit their response to this information in a month.

HT had reported that 18 pilots had quit Pawan Hans between December 2017 and May this year, resulting in a shortage of pilots. According to senior officials, the government-run company has 30% fewer pilots than required. Pawan Hans has around 45 Mumbai-based (over 100 in the country) pilots flying for them. A senior pilot in the company earns a maximum of ₹3 lakhs per month.

Officials said that around 40 IAF pilots are to be interviewed for work in Pawan Hans. “While half of the IAF pilots have been already interviewed, 20 more are scheduled to be interviewed,” said a Pawan Hans official. These IAF pilots, once hired, will then be a full-time Pawan Hans pilots.

A senior Pawan Hans official, who is in the know about the company’s plans to hire IAF pilots, said that the company will pay the air force pilots higher salaries. “The management had agreed to increase our flying allowance four years back but never did,” the official said.

“Pilots are very important community for our operations. As management, we are actively discussing the matter with the pilots and are sincerely working on resolving their issue at the earliest,” said a senior Pawan Hans official.