New Delhi, Sep 28 (Inditop.com) The Air India management will meet the Delhi faction of the agitating executive pilots here Monday as their strike entering the third day, forcing cancellation of at least 11 flights out of the national capital alone.
Despite Air India Sunday agreeing to look into their grievances, particularly the productivity-linked incentives (PLI), the Delhi faction of executive pilots said they would continue the strike till the management also conceded their demand and paid them their last three months’ salary arrears.
The airline Sunday decided to constitute a committee to look into the PLI modalities.
“The management will hold talks with us today. We are not giving up our fight until they agree to pay the PLI for three months and other arrears. The PLI constitutes the major chunk of our salary,” Captain V.K Bhalla, who represents senior executive pilots, told Inditop Monday.
Bhalla also accused Air India managing director Arvind Jadhav of creating confusion among the pilots. “We are still on strike,” he maintained.
Jadhav is expected to fly down from Mumbai to meet the Delhi faction of the senior executive pilots represented by Bhalla. Air India has its head office at Mumbai.
While most pilots have given up their agitation, their senior colleagues in Delhi are still adamant. At least 11 flights from Delhi had to be cancelled Monday.
About 100 executive pilots reported for work between Friday and Sunday midnight, while according to a senior Air India official, executive pilots based in Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata resumed duty Monday.
The civil aviation ministry has called a meeting of all airlines Tuesday to discuss the situation arising out of the Air India pilots’ agitation as well as a similar protest by their counterparts in the Jet Airways earlier this month.
The Air India agitation began last week after the management’s decision to slash the PLIs of employees by 25 to 50 percent as a part of cost-cutting measures. The airline’s current debt is about Rs.16,500 crore and its losses stood at Rs.7,200 crore in fiscal 2008-09 that ended March 31.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday condemned the national carrier’s decision to slash the wages and PLI of its pilots and demanded the government’s intervention in the Air India strike.
