Ministry nixes lockout option for Air India management

New Delhi: Domestic air travellers came within a whisker of their travel plans going completely awry this festive season on Monday. An angry AI management was contemplating declaring an indefinite lockout as talks between Delhi-based striking pilots and CMD Arvind Jadhav broke down after a fiery meeting here on Monday on the issue of salary cuts. It's learnt that late on Monday night aviation minister Praful Patel prevailed on the airline to give talks another chance and not go in for such drastic action.
The government is now going to see how many pilots report for work on Tuesday, before cracking down. "There is not going to be any lockout. We cannot allow passenger suffering. At the same time, we are taking all steps to restore AI's health. Pilots must report for work and we will sort out the issue of wage cuts though talks. We will advise the management to enter into a comprehensive dialogue with all sections of employees and the strike must end immediately,'' aviation secretary M M Nambiar said, while linking the early resumption of normal services to any government financial aid to the airline.
Earlier in the day, the agitating pilots, led by Captain V K Bhalla, met Jadhav here. The meeting turned out to be stormy with the pilots insisting that their wages should be restored and all dues paid and Jadhav, far from blinking under pressure, insisting that costs have to be cut to keep the airline afloat. After nearly two hours, both the sides walked out in a huff. Then from 6.30pm, aviation circles were abuzz with reports of an impending lockout.
29/09/09 Saurabh Sinha & Neha Lalchandani/Economic Times

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Categories: Air India Domestic Sep 2009, NACIL Sep 2009