15 senior MIAL officials lose jobs for taking confiscated oil bottles, coconuts | India News

MUMBAI: Oil bottles and coconuts—items that are confiscated during the airport security check have, in a twist of fate, ended up becoming ‘dangerous goods’ for over 15 senior officials of Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) as they have lost their jobs for taking these goods for personal use, said aviation sources.Last month, the MIAL management allegedly forced over 15 middle management officials to resign for having pocketed these security-restricted articles (SRA) items. These goods were marked for disposal.SRA items are objects such as knives, batteries, toys, cello tape, chilli, lighters, e-cigarettes, coconuts, oil, and so on, which are banned in the passenger cabin and hence confiscated from flyers by the CISF during pre-departure security check.The resignations happened last month, from Aug 1, after MIAL’s HR department confronted these officials with CCTV footage taken in the previous months. The footage showed these officials taking these SRA items for personal use. Some of the officials TOI spoke to claimed they were given two choices, either submit a resignation right away or face termination. Among those who lost their jobs following voluntary resignations were officials from the terminal operations department such as senior duty terminal officer, duty terminal manager, deputy manager and senior executive, among others.MIAL did not respond to a query sent by TOI.During pre-departure security check, the CISF confiscates these restricted items from passengers’ cabin bags. These are sent to the MIAL terminal operations department. At the end of each 12-hour shift a register entry is made of the confiscated SRA goods. “No one counts exactly how many coconuts, but yes, an entry is made of the items,” said an official.“There was no clear communication or briefing to us about the strict policy for such disposals. The items are bound for the garbage bin or are boxed and collected by NGO Rescue Foundation. We assumed taking an SRA item wouldn’t be a major violation which calls for termination. For years now, none of the bosses bothered with the confiscated coconuts, oil bottles. It was more of a nuisance,” said one of the officials who was made to resign. He added the officials who lost their jobs have been on the rolls of MIAL for over 1 to 2 decades. “Our grievance is that we were kicked out without as much as a warning for a first-time offence,” the official added.Advocate Ashok Shetty said, “The punishment should be commensurate with the gravity of the misconduct and the length of service put in by the employee concerned. The Supreme Court of India emphasises due process and a fair hearing before terminating an employee, ensuring a reasoned order, especially in cases of misconduct.” He added that 15 people being forced to resign amounts to illegal termination without holding an inquiry. “Forcible resignation amounts to termination. If they have committed a misconduct, an inquiry should be carried out as per the due process of law. It would entail a chargesheet being issued if the action amounts to misconduct under the standing orders. This has also brought to fore the SOP followed to dispose of such items, the disciplinary procedures for violation of SOPs and staff treatment at the airport.”Mumbai airport’s terminal 1 and 2 together handle about 1.5 lakh passengers a day. Despite placards and messages displaying pictures of restricted items, passengers turn up at the security check with these banned items. For instance: An entry made in May during a day shift duty had items such as e-cigarettes (2), match box (25), coconut (50), cells (10), tools (2), cutter (08), talcum powder (20), scissors (12), knife (9) and screwdriver (14). Passengers apparently pack in all sorts of restricted items. Some days the SRA confiscated items list stretches to over two dozen items—spanners, masking tape, toy gun, rope, candle, plier, spices, luggage chain, pepper spray, big umbrella, big bat, copra and chilli powder.