June 11: Nearly a year after Indian Airlines began implementing a productivity-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for its employees, intra-union rivalries have surfaced among various categories of staffers not content with the size of the pie.

Sections of IA's executives, pilots, traffic assistants and technical staff have threatened to break away from existing unions or are challenging their existing leadership. The power struggle is telling on performance as union leaders shuttle across the country scouting for support on tickets provided by the airline and network with members during working hours.

The first signs of trouble over productivity-linked incentive began three months ago when IA's officers sacked their president and chief negotiator, G Ramesh for `selling out to the management'. However Ramesh, who insists on staying in the fray, and the officially recognised union leaders have been touring the airline's offices across the country extensively in order to garner support for their respective sides. As union representatives all of them are entitled to a certain amount of free air tickets even during the peak holiday season.

Even among the executives, the airline's commercial officers, who claim to put in six hours of additional work every week as compared to other Indian Airline executives, are demanding a higher share of productivity-linked incentive.

Similarly, the Air Corporation Employees Union, the biggest union of the airline, is facing a three-way split with factions in Calcutta and Madras challenging the leadership of the body. This body which represents a cross section of IA employees including loaders and technicians to cabin crew is fighting court cases in both cities. IA's traffic assistants, also part of the union, have now applied to the management for recognition as a separate union.

Resentment is also brewing among IA's pilots who have been complaining of loss of earnings following the handing over of the airline's Boeing aircraft to IA's subsidiary, Alliance Air. IA's co-pilots, trained on the Airbus A300s and A320s, complain of lower promotional prospects compared to their counterparts in Alliance Air. The Delhi unit of the pilots union is pressurising the office-bearers for taking a tough stand against the management on the issue.

Under the productivity-linked incentive scheme employees are paid monthly incentives depending on the performance of the airline. The parameters consist of aircraft utilisation, timely availability of aircraft for flying, time taken by aircraft for major maintenance purposes, the number of passengers carried and on-time performance. As per the plan formulated by the government, the quantum of incentives to be paid for the employees is to be mutually decided by the management and the unions.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.