PIA calls back some cabin crew members sent on forced leave

[Abbas Ali]

By Hasan Ali

LAHORE: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has called back some of its grounded crew members and is helping them improve their fitness and language skills, sources told Daily Times on Saturday.

PIA grounded 73 crew members in November 2006 and sent them on three months forced leave. The crew on international flights were told to improve their language skills, and the domestic flight crew to lose weight.

Now the PIA management has called back 10 crew members from Karachi and told them to use the PIA fitness centre in the city. They have also been allowed to draw their salaries. However, other crew members complained that they had not been called back because, unlike the Karachi staff, they did not have “influential contacts” in the government.

“These members were sent on forced leave but later the management decided to cut their due leave, which is also against the law,” said a crew members requesting anonymity.

He said that when he contacted senior PIA officials in Karachi and asked them why crew at other stations had not been called back, they replied that they had already sent letters in this connection to the concerned flight management of other stations. “However, when I contacted the flight management staff at Allama Iqbal International Airport, they said that they had not received any such letter,” he said.

A senior PIA Lahore official requesting anonymity said that it could be possible that the airline is running the programme for returning crew members in phases, so crew at other stations would be given help with their language and weight problems at a later stage.

A PIA spokesman said that the management had called back almost all the grounded crew members and decided to provide them with language improvement classes and a gymnasium so they could overcome their professional deficiencies.

He said PIA was already facing a severe shortage of cabin crew, which is why the management decided to call back crew members with minor lapses.

Source: Daily Times

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