Air India staff stage walkout

The two-hour walkout was against delay in payment of salaries for June

— Photo: Paul Noronha

Air India employees protest at the domestic airport in Mumbai on Friday.

Mumbai: A large number of employees of Air India staged a walkout for two hours on Friday in protest against the delay in payment of June salaries. Around 300 employees staged a demonstration outside the Mumbai airport.

George Abraham, general secretary, Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG), claimed that the protest was successful and peaceful and over 70 per cent of the employees of the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) took part in it. The unions charged that the airline went back on its assurance that salary payment would be advanced to July 3 from July 15. Payment of salaries for Air India staff in grades 1 to 9 and Indian Airlines employees in grades 1 to 3 and 6 has been postponed.

Vivek Rao, regional secretary, Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) said: “The ACEU and the AIEG represent 21,000 employees out of the total 31,000. We were promised salaries on July 3, at least for the lower grade employees who constitute around 60 per cent of the workforce. The demonstration was only to show our unity. Our intent is to enable a turnaround of the airline and the employees only want to help facilitate that at the earliest, but we have to be involved in the discussions.”

A statement from Air India said the agitation “failed to have any impact on flights across the country.” It said reports reaching the airline’s headquarters from all stations on Air India’s network indicated that the departure and arrival of all flights during the strike period was as per normal schedule.

The Air India management, in a notice issued on Thursday, warned that those taking part in the July 3 strike would be viewed seriously and appropriate action would be taken against them, including deduction of wages and withdrawal of the productivity-linked incentive payment until further orders.

Jitender Bhargav, executive director, Air India, told The Hindu: “Our priority was to ensure that the flights were on time and that no passengers were inconvenienced. That was ensured. There is no way we could have paid the salaries on Friday and still they had threatened the strike.”

In a communication to the airline’s employees, Arvind Jadhav, Chairman and Managing Director, said that besides salaries, fuel costs and bank liabilities such as payment of interest and re-payment of principal amount, had also to be paid on time, failing which the airline’s operations could stop. “Considering the critical financial state of the airline, we should all be prepared to face the impact of harsh decisions that will be required to be taken in the coming weeks to meet the current difficult situation,” he said.

Mr. Jadhav said: “It appears that the gravity of the financial situation has not seemingly sunk in all of us.”

Sounding a note of ultimatum, Mr. Jadhav said, “There is an urgent need to have a better understanding of the ground realities because unless we know the magnitude of the problem we will not be able to take corresponding action for overcoming it. It is of paramount importance that while we take steps to reduce our operating costs and sacrifice some of the privileges we have enjoyed over a period of time, we also need to exercise a choice between austerity and oblivion.” link....