More pilots join Air India strike: Reports
At least 40 pilots roped in by Air India to substitute the nearly 700 pilots on strike demanding pay reforms joined the protest ?unofficially? on Thursday, media reports said, as the boycott entered the second day in direct confrontation with a court order.
Over 50 Air India flights were cancelled on Thursday, even as the Delhi High Court ordered the protesting pilots to end their strike. On Thursday 40 substitute pilots too joined the strike by calling in sick, reports said.
The pilots, most of them from the domestic carrier Indian which completed its merger with Air India earlier this year, demand a similar pay structure to AI personnel which includes a larger fixed salary component.
They allege their salaries are getting hit by their largely variable pay structure, which is based on the number of flights, since the management was under-utilising the loss-making airline?s fleet and personnel and had cut down flights by 30 to 40 percent.
Reports said at least 26 flights out of Mumbai and 28 flights out of Delhi were cancelled by Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, at least 36 flights from Delhi and ten from Mumbai were cancelled, leaving hundreds of passengers in a fix. Air India authorities maintained that international flights were not affected.
Air India management retaliated by sacking six pilots, derecognising the union Indian Commercial Pilot’s Association (ICPA) and sealing its offices. It said the strike wasn?t legal since the union had promised the Delhi High Court that it wouldn?t stop work.
?Striking pilots are behaving in an irrational manner, especially at a time when the airline is in such a financial trouble,? said Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, adding that it was an unfair demand put forward by people who already have salaries over Rs 2 lakhs a month.
?Pilots can?t dictate terms to Air India,? said the Minister, promising to back any decision the management took over resolving the conflict. Air India said it had decided to rope in 150 executive pilots to soften the blow from the personnel-shortage.
