New Delhi/Mumbai: A day after the management decided to cut incentive payments by half, Air India unions today said they would meet next week to chalk out the future course of action even as some of them have decided not to go on strike.
Maintaining that the dialogue with the unions is continuing, the airline management said their leaders have agreed to "revert by early next week after discussing the issue with their office-bearers and committee members", an Air India spokesperson said.
Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav held discussions in Mumbai till late last night with representatives of various unions wherein he proposed a 50 percent cut in productivity linked incentive (PLI) and flying allowance payable to its employees.
The unions have decided to meet on August 25 to decide on their future course of action, All India Cabin Crew Association (AICCA) President and Shiv Sena MP Bharatkumar Raut said.
Besides AICCA, other unions opposing the management's proposal include the Executive Cabin Crew Association, Air India Employees Union, Engineers Association, Indian Airlines' Technicians Association and Bharatiya Kamgar Sena of erstwhile Indian Airlines staffers.
Raut, however, said the Sena-backed unions have taken "a conscious decision not to resort to a strike because of the crisis Air India is going through".
The technicians association president M S Kulkarni said, "We will not accept any cut unless the revised PLI of certain categories is brought back to the pre-2007 level."
The Board of the National Aviation Company of India Limited, while announcing a 50 percent cut in PLI and flying allowance, had said the cut would be in effect till an alternative formula for governing PLI was put in place.
The alternate formula, the airline said, would be worked out within three months.
Air India hopes to save around Rs 600-700-crore by way of this reduction. Its total PLI payment annually amounts to around Rs 1,400 crore.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, August 21, 2009, 23:26