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• In a bid to re-instill discipline among the heavily unionized staff, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to crack down on errant employees. Officials in the organization, that manages 125 airports across the country, said an order has been issued to weed out inefficient or errant employees of over 50 years of age by premature retirement.

• The action is expected to impact Kolkata airport most as executives have been unable to discipline inefficient staff as they enjoy the protection of the union that is extremely strong here. No other airport in India receives so many complaints from passengers on shabby maintenance of lounges and toilets and rude staff behavior.

• "Let's face it, we have a problem with the staff. It's not as though everyone is inefficient or undisciplined. But a few bad apples spoil the entire basket. The problem is particularly acute in Kolkata where the union has always been very dominant," an AAI official said.

• Till now, action could not be taken against the errant employees as the management feared agitation by union would cripple services at the airport. But that has now changed with the human resource department issuing a circular that sites rule 12(5) of AAI (General Conditions of Service & Remuneration of Employees) Regulations, 2003 to prematurely retire inefficient and undisciplined staff. A five-member committee has been formed with the airport director as chairperson to review the performance of employees up to the post of senior manager who have already crossed 50 years.

• "Any organization's performance is directly linked to the efficiency of its employees. With the government laying emphasis on quantitative performance of central public sector enterprises like AAI, the rule has been invoked to identify and retire staff who are either inefficient or of doubtful integrity or medically unfit," the official said.

• It is the poor work ethics of the staff that has prompted the AAI management to hand over the maintenance of the new integrated terminal at Kolkata airport to private companies.

• Dipankar Ghosh, the regional secretary of Airports Authority Employees' Union (AAEU), acknowledges that the interest of the organization has not always been a priority for the staff. "A union's role is not just to demand sops from the management but also to guide employees in adopting better work ethics. Unfortunately, most unions are wanting in that front and AAEU is no exception," he said.

• Though Ghosh claims to have tried to encourage better work culture, he candidly admits it has been an arduous task. "It is not just the non-executive staff here. I feel the management is also responsible for failing to supervise the work. If those in supervisory posts are inefficient and shirk work, how can one expect subordinates to perform?" he questioned.

• As for losing out on the opportunity to work in a world-class terminal, he concurred that the AAI staff had failed to acquire the requisite skills for maintaining a modern facility like the integrated terminal. "The management should have trained its own employees. And we should have displayed more enthusiasm," he said, hoping that at least some of the 1,000-odd non-executive staff will get to work in the new environment.

• But there is no denying the fear that many will be transferred to other airports once all airlines shift their operations to the new terminal by September.

• Pradeep Sikdar, secretary of rival Airports Authority Staff & Workers' Union (AASWU), doesn't blame the management. Instead, he accuses the lack of foresight and narrow interest of AAEU leaders for the current apathy of the staff.

• "The work culture in the state has been systematically destroyed. Nepotism is rampant. When the union encourages permanent staff to shirk duty while contractual staff does work, one is inviting trouble. Most of the housekeeping staff work only for an hour and then claim overtime. As a result, lobbies are ill-maintained and toilets dirty. AAEU is solely responsible for the ill-repute of Kolkata airport. The union has miserably failed the staff," Sikdar said.

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