Air India staff brave warning, stage walkout

New Delhi/Mumbai, Jul 04 : Staff of the national carrier Air India (AI) have staged a walkout of work for two hours as a part of their movement in protest against delayed payment of salaries, despite a warning by the management.

The stir was organised last afternoon by Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG), Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) and some other unions.

The agitators came out of their workplaces in Delhi and Mumbai and stage stir from 1300 hours and threatened to boycott their meetings with the management.

Around 300-odd employees brandished red flags and assembled in front of the old terminal shouting slogans in Delhi against the management and demanding immediate payment of salaries.

"The government cannot defer the salary as per Payment of Wages Act. It must pay the salary by July 10. The company is not following rules and regulations and taking decisions which is not in the interests of employees," J B Kadiyan, General Secretary of ACEU, said.

In Mumbai, AIEG General Secretary, George Abraham, stated, "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, however, no reports of disruption of AI services from the airport due to the protest.

The workers went ahead with their strike despite a Staff Notice issued earlier in the day by AI warning that "any
participation in the illegal strike would be viewed seriously and appropriate action, including deduction of wages and withdrawal of Productivity-Linked Incentive till further orders, will be taken.

They were protesting the earlier decision of the management to defer the June salary by the middle of this month.
Kadiyan alleged that the company is being "damaged systematically by certain vested interests who want to sell Air India off.

This we will never allow."

He also demanded a CBI enquiry into the Air India's plan to buy 68 aircraft for Rs 6,000 crore when its annual budget is Rs 7,000 crore.

"The total budget of Air India is Rs 7,000 crore and then why it decided to buy aircraft worth Rs 6,000 crore. Air India has plans to purchase 24 aircraft and Indian Airlines has plan to buy 43 aircraft. But later Air India changed its fleet plan and within 24 weeks firmed a plan to buy 68 aircraft," he informed.

--IBNS