State-owned Air India employees on Friday threatened to resort to agitation accusing the management of overlooking their legitimate rights and delaying payment of wages and other arrears.
As part of their agitation plan, Air India employees would resort to protests by organising rallies and meetings. Although, the Air India unions or employees have not given notice for strike, a joint forum of eight Air India unions representing different sections of staff of the national carrier have indicated that they would soon start wearing black badges, take out silent marches and rallies, hold gate meetings and adopt a `No pay No work’ policy. The unions said the date and time of protest would be decided shortly. Air India pilots had gone on a 58-day long strike over career progression issue from May 7.
“It appears that the management is not serious about all the issues raised by us. It is intentionally and with a motive to create industrial unrest overlooking our legitimate rights and violating all the bilateral agreements,’’ the Joint Action Forum of Unions, Associations, Guilds of Air India, said in a notice to all its members.
It said the management had failed to clear outstanding salary and allowances and regularise these payments. It warned that anomalies pertaining to seniority, pay-scales and other issues, arising out of the human resource (HR) integration of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India employees, should be rectified before implementing the recommendations of Dharmadhikari Committee on HR issues. It said bilateral agreements should be entered into by the management with all the unions.
It claimed that talks over the decision to hive off Air India's engineering services and create a subsidiary on Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) had failed. The Forum comprises Executive Pilot's Union, Indian Pilots Guild, Air India Engineer's Association, Air India Officers Association, Air India Employees' Union, All India Service Engineers' Association, All India Cabin Crew Association and Air India Aircraft Engineers' Association.
