AI employees stage mass walkout from work

New Delhi, July 3 (PTI) Defying threat of a wage cut,
nearly 20,000 employees of cash-strapped Air India Friday
staged a mass walkout from work for two hours as part of their
nationwide protest demanding immediate payment of their
salaries.

The protest, called by Aviation Industry Employees Guild
(AIEG), Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) and some other
unions, saw employees coming out of their offices in Delhi and
Mumbai and stage demonstrations from one pm, besides
threatening to boycott their meetings with the management.

Around 300 employees, carrying red flags, assembled in
front of the old terminal at the Delhi airport shouting
slogans in Delhi against the management and demanding
immediate payment of salaries. Later, they took out a
procession on the airport premises.

"The government cannot defer the salary as per Payment
of Wages Act. It must pay the salary by July ten. The company
is not following rules and regulations and taking decisions
which is not in the interest of employees," J B Kadiyan,
General Secretary of ACEU, said.

Airport officials said flight operations were not
disrupted because of the strike.

Secretary of the Aviation Industry Employees' Guild V J
Deka said the employees decided to stage a two-hour protest
from one pm to three pm to ensure minimum impact on the flight
operations. "This is token strike. We did not want to create
inconvenience to our passengers."

Hours before the employees staged the protest, the
airline management issued a stern warning to the employees,
saying "any participation in the illegal strike will be viewed
seriously and appropriate action, including deduction of wages
and withdrawal of Productivity-Linked Incentive till further
orders, will be taken".

Warning them of "firm" action if flights were disrupted
and passengers suffered inconvenience, the notice said the
agitation by the Joint Action Forum would violate the
Industrial Disputes Act and "tantamount to illegal strike".

Kadiyan said almost 20,000 employees joined the strike
nationwide to protest the arbitrary decisions of the
management which is leading to "serious financial problem" in
the national carrier.

"The management in a meeting on June 29 agreed to pay
salaries of 70 per cent of workers by today. But they could
not keep their words," he said.

Kadiyan alleged that the company is being "damaged
systematically by certain vested interests who want to sell
Air India off. "We will never allow this to happen."

"The total budget of Air India is Rs 7,000 crore. Then
why it decided to buy aircraft worth Rs 6,000 crore. Air India
planned to purchase 24 aircraft and Indian Airlines wanted to
buy 43 aircraft.

"But later Air India changed its fleet plan and within 24
weeks firmed a plan to buy 68 aircraft," Kadiyan said
questioning the decision to extend the fleet plan of Air
India.

He also demanded a CBI enquiry into the Air India's
decision to buy 68 aircraft instead of 24 aircraft agreed
initially.

Kadiyan said he had written a letter to India's Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh explaining the arbitrary decisions of
the Air India management which had "ruined the company."

In Mumbai, AIEG General Secretary George Abraham said,
"We are staging a walk-out and demonstration for two hours as
the management has failed to honour its commitment given to
the unions to pay our June salaries by today."

There were no reports of disruption of AI services either
in Delhi or in Mumbai. However, sources said one flight from
New Delhi to London was delayed because of the strike.

The Air India management had earlier conveyed that it
would pay its employees salaries for June on July 15th — a
delay of 15 days.

However, as the unions threatened to go on strike if they
did not get their salary on June 30, the management decided to
pay salaries of about 13,000 employees by July 3.

Last month, the airline also asked its top managers to
forgo one month's salary as part of efforts to survive the
crisis. PTI MPB
RAI
NNNN




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