AI pilots call off stir

Management agrees to defer pay cuts, sets up committee to discuss issue.

The 188 executive pilots of Air India today called off their protest and returned to work late this afternoon after the management agreed to put cuts in performance-linked incentive (PLI) payments “in abeyance”.

The airline's management also agreed to set up a committee with representation from both executive pilots and the management to discuss the issue of pay and allowance cuts.

There was some initial confusion over when the protest was called off. V K Bhalla, who represented the executive pilots announced to the press that the protest had been called off in the morning. Later, he had to concede to the demands of colleagues who declined to join work until the management issued a re-drafted office order that categorically put the PLI cut in abeyance.

Pilots also rejected an initial draft that suggested that the committee would comprise members from the civil aviation and finance ministries and the management led by Air India Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav.

The letter accommodating their demands was issued only late in the afternoon.

An Air India spokesperson said flights will return to normal by tomorrow morning. Bookings on all sectors of Air India’s network have also re-started. Today about 50 per cent of the flights were cancelled.

“We will immediately get back to work, and the protest is over.The government has agreed in writing to keep the 'talibani' order in abeyance and hold discussions with us,” said V K Bhalla, who represents the protesting pilots.

The new office order indicates a softening of the management's stance of 27 September, a day after executive pilots disrupted flight operations, in which only a “modification” of the PLI cut was specified after mutual discussion.

Pilots say the compromise offered on the 27th was unacceptable because it assumed that some cuts would be inevitable. “Our position was clear: even the question of whether a cut is required or not and if so, how much should be discussed by a committee. That is why we rejected this order and continued the strike,” said a senior executive pilot.

Last night, after Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel urged pilots to get back to work by midnight or face action, Bhalla received an assurance that the cuts would be put in abeyance.

The Air India management also agreed to disburse all flying allowances that have been pending for three months to the executive pilots by 7 October.

Sources, however, said the airline management had also prepared a contingency plan to be followed from October 1 if the executive pilots did not call off the protest. According to the plan, services of a large number of flights would be suspended and pilots sacked.

According to the official, Air India can terminate the services of employees who form a part of the management (starting from deputy general manager level) on the ground that any act by them is against the interests of the airline.