New Delhi, Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday took cognisance of a sexual harassment complaint made by a female employee of the national passenger carrier Air India and directed the senior management to “immediately address” the issue.
“Asked @airindiain CMD to immediately address this issue. If necessary, will appoint another committee,” Prabhu tweeted.
The minister’s direction came after a female employee of the national carrier took to Twitter and complained about the way her case was dealt with by a committee, which was earlier appointed by the airline.
The AI employee — a senior crew member — wrote a letter to Prabhu and marked copies of the same to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on May 25.
In the letter, which was made public by the employee via Twitter on Monday, she said: “I am forced to bring my serious complaint of sexual harassment and gross and deliberate discrimination by a senior officer of Air India over the last few years to your kind self.”
“… Since the management of Air India has refused to deal with the matter seriously and in fact are now considering rewarding him for sexual harassment against us.”
The letter detailed that the employee had approached the airline’s management in September 2017.
The employee had tweeted: “@sureshpprabhu @jayantsinha My complaint against Senior AI Executive of #sexualharassment #discrimination at the Workplace #AirIndia Internal Committee is Farce & Coverup. HELP @narendramodi @PMOIndia @BDUTT @fayedsouza @sagarikaghose @AUThackeray #MeToomvmt.”
After Prabhu, the Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi tweeted to the employee sand said: “Dear @flyingpari, I have seen your complaint and have requested my colleague Shri @sureshpprabhu ji to have it examined immediately.”
Even the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development tweeted that: “We have contacted @flyingpari and requested for details.”
