Air India unions end hunger strike, but will continue protest

Mumbai/New Delhi: Employees of National Aviation Co. of India Ltd (Nacil) ended their hunger strike on Thursday evening, but announced that they will continue to protest by not working extra hours between Friday and Sunday, and then forming human chains and holding luncheon protests.
“The next course of action is ‘zerotime overtime’,” said J.B. Kadiyan, general secretary of the Air Corporation Employees’ Union (ACEU) adding that members of another major union, Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild (AIEG), would join ACEU in the protest.
Both unions together count at least 20,000 workers as members. “There will be no flight disruption or inconvenience to the passengers,” Kadiyan said.
A senior Air India official who did not want to be identified said the airline had already issued orders that “overtime expense has to be controlled and accounted for”, implying that the protest was irrelevant because the airline was anyway not keen on having employees work extra hours.
On Wednesday, a majority of Nacil employees rejected a proposal to cut 50% of their productivity-linked incentives (PLI), making it harder for the embattled carrier to argue its case for an equity infusion and soft loans from the government.
27/08/09 P.R. Sanjai and Tarun Shukla/Livemint

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Categories: NACIL Aug 2009