The contractual ground handling staff of Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), a subsidiary of Air India which provides ground handling services, were back on duty on Friday after going on a flash strike.
Over 30 flights in the city were affected by the strike, which was called by a section of AIATSL employees over the non-payment of Deepavali bonus and reinstatement of three colleagues whose contracts had not been renewed. The strike was called off on Thursday night after discussions with the management, a senior official said. “All issues have been sorted out and employees are now back to work and flight operations are normal,” the official said. The three employees have still not been reinstated, the official said.
The contractual employees struck work at the Mumbai airport on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.
AIATSL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the national carrier, provides ground handling services to Air India across airports in the country. It has about 5,000 employees, including those on contract. The official said, “Some AIATSL employees at the Mumbai airport are on strike since Wednesday-Thursday night over non-payment of Diwali bonus and reinstatement of the services of some of their former colleagues. This stand-off has resulted in flight operations getting hampered.”
An AIATSL official said the company had already paid the bonus after negotiations and the employees had suddenly started insisting on restoring the services of three colleagues, whose contracts had not been renewed last month.
The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) said that 37 flights, including international ones, were delayed by around three hours till 3 p.m. on Thursday. A Mumbai-Bangkok flight was delayed by over six hours and departed at 8.18 a.m. instead of 1.45 a.m. owing to the strike. Another flight to Newark departed at 4.08 a.m., nearly two-and-a-half hours after its scheduled departure at 1.30 a.m.
An airport official said, “Air India pressed into service its permanent employees to handle the ground handling operations at the Mumbai airport during the strike period.”
