Air India tries to avert another strike by pilots

New Delhi: In a bid to avert a second pilots’ strike, Air India has agreed to pay its employees unpaid dues by 10 November, even as its pilots said they will decide on pulling back from possible industrial action on 1 November. The airline’s pilots had struck work earlier in September, leading to widespread cancellation of Air India’s domestic and international flights.
“It is very kind of them but there is a crisis of confidence,” said Capt. V.K. Bhalla, senior executive pilot at the carrier. “If they will pay, we are not interested in going for an agitation. On an empty stomach we can’t work for a long time.”
Bhalla led the agitation in September, which saw several pilots reporting sick and creating operational chaos at airports, especially Delhi, for the carrier.
“It’s status quo as far as we are concerned,” R.S. Otaal, general secretary of Air India’s pilots’ union, Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association, which has at least 800 members, said.
Otaal had threatened to take industrial action from 1 November in response to unpaid performance linked incentives to Air India pilots for two months.
The airline, he said, informed the union on Thursday that it will pay dues such as performance-linked incentives for only a month and not clear the entire arrears.
29/10/09 Tarun Shukla/Live Mint

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India Domestic Oct 2009, NACIL Oct 2009