The government of India tried to get International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. organization which coordinates air travel rules, to limit airlines recruiting employees outside of their own countries.
They sought a model “code of conduct” for recruiting pilots, mechanics and flight attendants because foreign airlines hiring away employees from Air India and IndiGo has disrupted the “orderly” growth of air travel in their country and meant that those airlines have to keep traininng replacements. Recruiting employees away from airlines in other countries, India says, violates the obligation countries have to allow a “fair opportunity” to operate international carriers.
The push is for national rules and international agreements requiring:
- mandatory prior notice and consultation before onboarding crew from airlines in another country
- standardized minimum notice windows for hiring away employees
- repaying airlines for training costs
Blocking airlines from hiring foreign mechanics and pilots hurts safety at those airlines. And forbidding hiring limits opportunity for these employees, to the benefit of their employees. It turns them into indentured servants. (As it is, my understanding is that IndiGo and Air India generally won’t hire away pilots from each other – this would mean no foreign exit as well.)
Labor mobility isn’t part of ICAO’s portfolio, so they did not go along, suggesting that airlines provide better pay and working conditions to retain employees they want to keep.
India’s underlying view (and that of its airlines pushing for this) is that the government – and your employer – owns your human capital. India’s constitution declares itself a socialist state. They own your labor.
If they’re investing in training and design contracts that pay back training over a period of years, that could be an unforceable public policy (provided airlines can get enough workers signing up under those terms). Anything beyond that is employer rent‑seeking dressed up as “orderly development.”
Far better to make the job someplace people want to keep working!
- Decent pay
- Predictable schedules
- Rest rules that limit fatigue
- Grow the talent pipeline
While this is primarily about pilots, the discussion centered on multiple aviation professions even though it’s far less expensive and time-consuming to train flight attendants.
If using training cost agreements, there should be clear amortization schedules with an explicit recovery table in the event a pilot leaves within a specified number of months.
Lack of enforceable property rights, including in your own labor, and consistent application of the rule of law might just be part of why India’s per capita GDP is ~ $2,700 – at about the same level as Cambodia.
I could support this if they also demanded an end to foreign businesses hiring their citizens for their technical / customer support call centers.
Gary, there are many definitions of socialism. One is that it is, “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole”. And so some extent the U.S. is a socialist country. After all the “products” of such organizations as police and fire departments, libraries, high schools, and parks are owned by the governments and supported by taxes on the communities.
But that doesn’t mean the labor of the people is “owned”! For example, there are private parks and many high schools run as businesses. And India has a huge capitalist economy too…in fact, Air India is 75% held by the immense capitalistic Tata Group (the other quarter is by Singapore Airlines). So this isn’t communism where the state in theory controls the whole economy, and I wouldn’t say the airline employees’ labor has been sold to the government, though like everywhere else it can be regulated. (And good for the ICAO in not going along with Delhi’s request.)
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rejected the proposal, suggesting that Indian airlines should instead offer better pay and working conditions to retain staff… sounds like ICAO is right.
@drrichard — Yup, folks like Gary have been throwing around ‘communist’ and ‘socialist’ as dirty words for people or things they think they don’t like. It’s very much a ‘red scare’ tactic. Sadly, we’re reliving a version of McCarthyism today. As if mere ‘free’ buses would make anyone a ‘communist.’ Laughable. Ahh, public roads, schools, the military… ‘socialism!’ We gotta make our personal roads.
Maybe not pay them like serfs? Justan idea.
“India’s constitution declares itself a socialist state. They own your labor.”
Where are you getting this stuff? Socialism doesn’t necessarily mean any such thing. So you’re an indentured servant in Sweden as well when you work for a company? After all, Sweden is a proudly socialist country.
@Christian — Heck, I’d become an ‘untouchable’ in Sweden if they’d let me stay.