Air India starts online yoga classes for stressed crew members, pilots say address real issues
Air India has started online yoga classes for pilots and crew members. The decision comes after several pilots called in sick after the June 12 Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad. The airlines said that this was an initiative to help improve the mental health of its workers. But the initiative was not appreciated by the pilots. They said that there were more pressing issues which needed to be addressed by the airlines, like the system of rostering followed by them, the system of offs etc.
New Delhi: Air India has started online yoga classes for its crew members, including its pilots. This decision comes amidst several reports that several pilots of the airlines were severely stressed after the June 12 Ahmedabad air crash. The decision comes after the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed several airlines to hold post-trauma mental health workshops for their crew.
Crew leaves prompted decision
The decision to hold yoga classes to help crew live stress free, seems to have stemmed ftom the "minor increase" in crew leaves after the June 12 Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad. Air India had reported a "minor increase" in sick leaves by pilots post the tragic accident. On June 16, 112 crew members reported sick.
According to a report in the Times of India, a recent mail from AI’s safety head Captain Henry Donohoe said, "AI's wellness app offers a comprehensive suite of physical and emotional well-being support programmes. These include professional counselling sessions, online yoga classes, guided care circles and reflection sessions. In addition, we encourage you to explore self care app which provides a wide range of mental health resources, including personalised plans and sessions tailored to individual needs."
Reaction of pilots/crew
Though Air India is trying to help pilots through such mental well being initiatives. The pilots and crew members said that instead of such symbolic moves, the airline needs to "take some concrete steps if it is indeed serious" about the well being of its workers.
Several pilots complained of the airlines not giving them printed rosters. They said the first thing should be that Air India reverts to giving its pilots printed rosters. This would allow them to plan their lives. As of now the rostering is through an app and keeps changing continuously. The pilots complained that they cannot plan their lives as they are continuously at the beck and call of the airlines.
Pilots said that since rostering is now done on an app, they cannot even prove that they were earlier marked for another flight, which has been changed. They said that if they refuse to operate flights as updated in the app, they face consequences.
The pilots complaints came despite the DGCA directing airlines "not to push pilots" to come to work and operate a flight if they were not feeling up to it. The reason that the DGCA gave such instructions was that "mental health affects physical health, which in turn affects their ability to operate flights safely." In fact the DGCA has issued several notices to airlines regarding crew scheduling.
Pilots also complained about lack of human touch in the initiatives taken by the airlines for mental health wellbeing. They said, even for yoga they have created an app. Apart from these complaints, the pilots wanted weekly offs, instead of the current system of getting off on the 8th day or after completing 168 hours of flying.