Air India flights to operate as usual from tomorrow

Air India flights will operate as normal from Tuesday. This follows the airline management and pilots reaching an agreement in Mumbai on Sunday.

“The agreement involves some financial payout by the airline. The pilots have withdrawn the strike call issued earlier,” a senior airline official told Business Line without divulging details of the agreement reached. Sections of the airline pilots had threatened to go on strike from midnight Monday.

The pilots and management were to meet again on Monday (November 30) at the office of Chief Labour Commissioner here to resolve their differences.

Demands
The agitating pilots were seeking wage revision and parity in wages with other pilots and an inquiry into the mismanagement of the company. A major bone of contention between the agitating pilots and the management has been the proposal to stop paying Productivity- Linked Incentives (PLI) to its employees including pilots. PLI forms a large portion of the monthly salaries of employees.

The airline's annual PLI payout is about Rs 1,500 crore, almost half of which is paid to pilots and cabin crew, while the remaining is shared by about 26,000 employees of the airline. Air India has a total staff strength of 31,500 employees.

The pilots had gone on a four-day strike in September this year. At that time about 200 pilots had reported sick protesting against the decision to cut their PLI by 50 per cent and non-payment of flying allowances for three months. The agitation disrupted the carrier's operations with 240 flights being cancelled during the impasse. The financial loss to the airline was estimated at over Rs 100 crore.

Source:
Air India flights to operate as usual from tomorrow
The Hindu Business Line
Date- 30 November 2009
Edition- New Delhi http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/11/30/stories/2009113050990300.htm