New Delhi: The strike call given by erstwhile Indian Airlines' pilots got deferred by a week to next Wednesday, thanks to the intervention of aviation minister Vayalar Ravi and secretary Nasim Zaidi. This meant directing the airline management to solve the basic issues till larger things are resolved, something that aviation ministry feels could have been done by the airline much earlier without letting matters go out of hand.
"The issue of parity between Air India and Indian Airlines is a very complex one. But pilots complained that within IA itself there are huge discrepancies in number of hours flown and hence pay of pilots. While some fly for over 100 hours a month and get close to Rs 12 lakh, others get one-fourth of that flying time and pay. The management has been directed to see how many hours does IA fly and divide those judiciously between all co-pilots and commanders irrespective of other things," said a top official.
A pilot can fly for 120 hours in a month, subject to a maximum of 1,000 hours in a year. The average flying of 80 hours is now down to 50 hours for IA pilots. "While AI pilots get fix pay, we get paid for number of hours we actually fly for. Since merger has taken place and we technically work for one airline, there must be some parity on working conditions including pay," said a pilot.
10/03/11 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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