In what can be seen as a no-nonsense approach and hardening its stance, civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi has directed Air India to withhold salaries of pilots on strike. The on-going protest of 800-member Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) on Tuesday entered the seventh day causing the airline a loss of about R130 crore.
The airline is currently operating only 10% of its flights out of 320 a day normally on the domestic network. The airline has also witnessed an impact on its feed for international flights as a result of this.
?The pilots are absconding from work. As per the rules we cannot give salaries to the staff who have gone on leave without any prior information,? an Air India official said.
Airline sources said the company?s management was willing to talk to the pilots and listen to their demand but was not in a position to do anything due to certain constraints.
?Firstly, their demand is reversal of the company?s decision to de-recognized the union. Now since the matter is sub-judice and the issue is before the Delhi High Court the management cannot do anything,? said the source.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has issued contempt of court notices to nine sacked pilots for not obeying its order. The court has given the pilots two weeks? time and hear their response on May 25.
The court has repeatedly asked the agitating pilots to call off the strike and resume work but the pilots have defied the order saying they are ready to go to jail.
Meanwhile, the airline has adopted a new operations plan where it will collectively run some 100 flights on domestic and international sectors, until the strike continues. Under the new operations plan, the airline will fly fewer flights and will only use wide-bodied aircraft like a Boeing 737.
The strike took place due to ICPA, a union form by erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots before it merged with AI in 2007, demand of an immediate pay hike which should be equal to their counterparts in AI, remained unmet by the airline?s management. The AI management has said that it has already hired an expert committee to look into the pay parity issue between erstwhile Indian Airlines and AI which which will offer a solution soon.
