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Air India Pilots "Land" Allowances

by Mritunjay | September 29, 2009 at 05:53 pm

232 views | 14 Recommendations | 7 comments

Its official now. At a press conference Praful Patel, Civil Aviation Minister, Government of India today promised the protesting pilots of Air India (AI) that the proposed pay-cuts wont be introduced before consulting them. He also said that in the light of this assurance there is no reason why the pilots should stay away from duty now.

As reported earlier here by the same reporter the pilots were on a sick leave as a mark of protest since Saturday to protest the pay cut. Now with the assurance of the Civil Aviation Minister it is hoped that the agitating pilots will return to work.

AI has already stopped booking further tickets till next notice in wake of the disruption. The concern of 180 agitating senior pilots seems to be addressed for now with the clarification of minister and notice from AI that the full salary for the month of September has been deposited to the respective accounts of the pilots. Even though the issue of pilots seems to be out of the way a group of 60 non-union aircraft maintenance engineers in Delhi have also threatened to join the strike on Wednesday. Similarly junior pilots in Mumbai too have expressed their "moral support" for the agitating colleagues. It is noteworthy that the proposed move is supposed to affect nearly 7000 AI employees.

Hopefully the final decision would be reached through consensus and the passengers would not have to feel the burnt of such agitation again.

While the AI officials were still tensed about the strike it was a windfall profit for Indian Railways as many passengers were forced to travel by trains as AI flights were grounded due to the agitation. Officers from Central Railways (CR) went to the Chatrapati Shivaji Domestic Airport in Mumbai to advertise their services while Western Railways (WR) opened a special telephone line (10721) to answer the queries of passengers about reservation availability. CR had started a non-stop train from Mumbai to Kolkata on Monday (Duranto Express with running time of 26 hours between Mumbai-Kolkata) and hoped to advertise the same to the stranded passengers.

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Alok Sheopurkar (not verified)

at 17:59 on September 29th, 2009

Thank God they finally agreed to something. It was a horrible day being stranded up at the airport!

Mritunjay

at 20:36 on September 29th, 2009

Latest Update:

The stand-off between the management and pilots seems to be far from over. 18 early morning AI flights have already been cancelled as the stir enters fifth day. The Indian PM has urged the pilots to end the stir as Minister of Civil aviation and management have assured to look into their demands. The ticket booking has officially been closed till October 15, 2009.

Meanwhile the Railways has stepped up it's services by adding extra coaches and announcing extra trains from major cities to help stranded passengers. Railway officers have been instructed by Railway Minister to coordinate directly with Airline officials to disburse information to passengers and accommodate the passengers who need help.

Though contradicting reports coming from a different media channel reported that the pilots are willing to join in but waiting for a formal call to the duty after the management promised to look into the pay cut issue and decide only after discussing the issue with the pilots.

The next few hours may clear the cloud around this 5 day long issue which is agonizing passengers who have been worst hit while the national carrier continues to lose money owing to stalled operations.

Sujit Kakar (not verified)

at 20:48 on September 29th, 2009

One of the reports explained that a pilot showed his salary slip for last month and said he recieved Rs.23,000 which was his basic salary while with the incentives he would have got almost Rs.250,000. Now I understand why the issue is so big. Govt. and AI mngt. should try and resolve this ASAP.

Mritunjay

at 21:36 on September 29th, 2009

Latest Update:

The representative of the group of protesting Pilots of AI, Capt V K Bhalla has finally issued a public statement urging the 180 pilots to resume their duty after the Civil Aviation Minister gave assurance. In a statement released this morning (Wednesday); Capt Bhalla said "The strike is being called off in view of the assurances by the Civil Aviation Minister that status quo will continue on issues." He also apologized to the passengers who faced hardship due to the four day old stir which entered fifth day today.

- Source: http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?666967

Amitjha

at 21:57 on September 29th, 2009

Thank god, at last people will get some relief.

hidflect

at 01:51 on September 30th, 2009

People seem to think of pilots as some sort of elite getting fantastic pay to do what they love. Well I think it's a very tough, monotonous job. And seeing how so many US pilots are living in multi-bunk camper vans near the airport because their allowance is so poor, we need to applaud these Indian pilots for daring to stand up where their American counterparts are too "pushed down" to dare. I'm starting to believe that the activism we see in India for workers rights is one beacon of hope in this Corporation dominated society.

Mritunjay

at 05:41 on September 30th, 2009

After the strike has been called of by the agitating Pilots; the passenger traffic on AI flights seems to be getting normal.

It was a nightmarish experience for passengers stranded in the Andamans Islands with no air services. Mamata Banerjee, the Mister of Railways finally urged the Minster of State for Shipping to marshal the resources at his disposal to evacuate the passengers. He assured that MV Harshavardhan is set to sail from Andaman with adequate space for all passengers and he will try to get them accommodated.

Hopefully with end of the tug-of-war these and other passengers will heave a sigh of relief.