Air India wants its crew to change. But the crew is unreluctant.
The national carrier spent around Rs 8 crore in dressing up its 18,000 cabin crew members. The uniform was designed by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).
But crew members aren't happy for a variety of reasons. For one, most of them feel the new design is shabby. “Spending Rs 8 crore is a criminal waste of money. There was no need to change the uniform pattern or design. The current one is of global standards. As Air India is on saving mode, there was no need at all to go for new design and patterns,” said one.
The airline's decision to ask the staff to get their uniforms stitched individually also has not gone down well with crew members.
“Globally, all airlines have their panel of tailors to stitch uniforms for cockpit and cabin crew. The uniform should be identical, which makes you stand apart from other airlines,” said a crew member.
There was a time when AI, too, had a committee of experts, designers and a member of the crew to decide upon designs and patterns. Not any longer. These days no crew member is involved and everything is decided by the senior management. The airline even had a panel of tailors at one time.
The uniform material is provided by the carrier. Female crew members are supposed to get yellow sarees with artistic prints or churidar set. Male cabin crew will get black trousers, black waist jacket, black coat, blue pin stripe shirt and red tie.
Male crew members will get nine shirts, three pair of trousers, two jackets and two neckties. Female cabin crew would get either seven sarees with blouse pieces or four sarees with three churidar sets.
Another reason why the staff is not so happy is that the rates reimbursed are half the those of the market rate. Besides, the crew were asked to give measurements just 10 days prior to the introduction of the dress code.
As per the circular issued by AI general manager (personnel) R J Shinde, the stitching charges for terry cotton (TC) trousers are Rs 400, TC shirt (Rs 200), TC blouse (Rs 150), cotton blouse (Rs 130), TC and cotton dust coat (Rs 200), apron (Rs 100), terry wool (TW) double waist suit (Rs 3200), TW trouser (Rs 400), closed neck jacket (Rs 2,000) woolen jacket (Rs 1,500), petticoat (Rs 200)
AI spokesperson G P Rao neither answered calls nor responded to text messages. PR manager Kaizer Hussain also did not return calls. Pankaj Srivastava, director, commercial, said he was busy in a meeting.
Despite all the circulars and the money spent, only the northern region has given the measurements. The other three zones have not even started asking it.
