New Delhi: Air India pilots, protesting
management's moves to cut their salaries and allowances, on Friday
deferred their strike threat from November 24 by six days,
even as the conciliation talks remained inconclusive.
After a six-hour long marathon meeting, Chief Labour
Commissioner S K Mukhopadhyay appealed to them to defer their
strike call till the next round of negotiations on November 30
as the management sought more time to revert back on their
demands, which include implementation of a turnaround plan
without a salary cut.
This was their second round of talks before the CLC
after the first meeting on November nine.
"The second round of talks was unproductive as the
management did not come with crystal clear solutions to our
demands. They also asked for more time, and on the request
of Chief Labour Commissioner, we have deferred our strike call
till November 30," Captain Shailendra Singh, President of
Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), told reporters.
Singh claimed that the talks failed as the management
had come up with "ambiguous" proposals on their demands.
"The third round of conciliation talks would be held
on November 30 and, if on that day management does not give us
a positive response then we will go on strike from midnight,"
Singh said after the meeting.
Apart from Singh, ICPA General Secretary Capt R S
Otaal was also present at the negotiations, while the
management was represented by Executive Director (Industrial
Relations) T R Ramachandran and Deputy General Manager (IR)
Amrita Sharan.
The pilots during their last meeting had threatened
that if the airline management failed to come up with
"positive steps" for company's turnaround by today they would
proceed on strike from November 24 as per the notice.
The pilots' association, on November 2, had written a
letter to Air India Chairman-cum-Managing Director Arvind
Jadhav for payment of their salaries and incentives by
November 10, failing which they would be forced to proceed on
strike from November 24.
They had also demanded an inquiry into the alleged
mismanagement of the airline, implementation of uniform rules
for all the employees of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air
India and a turnaround plan from the management without any
cut in the salaries of any employees.
Senior pilots of Air India had gone on a five-day stir
in September protesting against the management's decision to
slash their flying allowance and productivity-linked
incentives by half. Following the agitation, the management
withdrew their decision.
PTI
First Published: Friday, November 20, 2009, 22:37