Mumbai, June 25: You may have heard and read about scams where huge amounts of money are involved. Mostly they are Ponzi schemes or fraudulent activities committed for quick gains and easy money. But a "Roster" scam at Air India will change your perception of how creative some professionals can be when it comes to escaping work which when repeated becomes a loss of not just money but also reputation. A rostering scam at the Air India airlines, will not only amaze you for the wrong reasons but will also make you wonder if money has taken over ethics in one of the most respected professions.

Picture this: A group of pilots, who earn their salary by flying 70 hours a month, mutually decide amongst themselves, to devise a plan whereby, one pilot will fly only for 40 hours by giving some random reason and yet take his full payment by ensuring that another pilot, who he has already spoken with, takes the lead to step in for his 30 hours. This way, the other pilot ends up doing his 70 hours in addition to the 30 hours he flew for his colleague. This entitles him to earn a salary of 100 hours which is 30 more than what he should be getting.

This favour is then extended by the first pilot to another in a cyclical way so that everyone benefits from it. And how does the company lose money in this case? Well, Air India has to endure double loss by paying one pilot for 70 hours when he has worked for only 40 and has to pay overtime to the other who flew 30 hours extra. And this incident repeating adds up to the company's losses and employees taking "undue" salary. The scam is also made possible by the weird rule that Air India has in place for "encouraging" flying. Air India has set a benchmark that any pilot who does a minimum of 40 hours of flying in a month will be paid for 70 hours. And if the workload goes beyond 70 hours, they will be paid for every extra 10 hours they flew which means that 70 to 80, 80 to 90 and 90 to 100 hours of flying will be rewarded with extra pay.

The roster or timetable for each pilot at Air India gets printed by a unit named Crew Management Services (CMS). It prints a monthly roster for pilots throughout the country. But there are 3 to 5 staffers who supervise the roster of a particular base. The problem begins or starts from these staffers who get complicit in the scam in return of money or other considerations.  An enquiry has been directed by the national carrier in the Airbus fleet and the DGMs (Deputy General Managers) at all bases will also be probed for their role in the wrongdoing.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 25, 2018 03:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).