Mumbai/New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Protesting a gag order and delay in the payment of salaries, over 15,000 crew members and maintenance engineers of Air India went on a flash strike all over India Tuesday, hitting the carrier’s operations. However, Air India maintained that flights were not affected from the metros.
‘Flights from the major metro cities have not been affected, but there have been a few dislocations at some of the non-metro airports,’ Air India said in an official statement.
‘A section of ground employees of Air India walked out of their assigned duty stations in the morning and afternoon. The management has mustered all available resources to minimise the impact on the scheduled operations,’ said an Air India spokesperson.
Answering a query on the cancellation of four flights from Mumbai, the spokesperson said: ‘While there have been four cancellations, some flights have been delayed or combined. The airline is making every possible effort to maintain normalcy in operations and ensure the highest standards of service to our valued passengers.’
The airline also tendered an apology to the passengers for dislocation in services. ‘The management would like to extend an unqualified apology to the passengers who have faced or may be facing inconveniences due to the dislocated operations,’ said the spokesperson.
Several flights got cancelled due to shortage of manpower, according to union sources in New Delhi.
Flights IC 264 (Delhi-Kolkata), IC 805 (Delhi-Mumbai), IC 469 (Delhi-Ahmedabad) and IC 849 (Delhi-Pune) were cancelled, a source said.
A union member said they were trying to talk to the management since the past few months but to no avail.
‘Time to time, they differ on our salary. The introduction of a new ground-handling policy will affect us, and due to shortage of cabin crew, flights are getting delayed. We are on an indefinite strike and till the management sorts out the matter we will remain on strike,’ said Anand Prakash, general secretary of the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) in the national capital.
A recent gag order asking employees not to talk to the media added fuel to the fire. The ACEU members decided to go on strike after the order.
‘Among the issues that forced employees to go on strike were non-payment of salaries and a controversy over serving liquor on board,’ said a protesting employee.
The national carrier had earlier ordered 50 percent cut in the productivity-linked incentives (PLI) to save about Rs.700 crore. PLIs currently account for 30 percent to 50 percent of Air India employees’ wages. PLIs have not been paid since August.
The airline appealed to its employees to come forward and join hands to strengthen the airline operations. ‘In this hour of crisis, the management earnestly appeals to all sections of employees to join hands to strengthen the airline and maintain high performance to show that Air India can cope up with any emergency,’ said the Air India statement.
‘Despite the tragedy that struck Air India on 22nd May 2010 in the shape of a fatal accident to IX 812, the airline has been able to operate 116 of the 123 scheduled flights on the network till 1430 hours.’
