AI, unions to hold talks on salary issue in afternoon

In a last-ditch effort, the management of national air-carrier Air India is holding talks with a section of its employee unions to avert a strike on the issue of deferment of June salaries.     

"We are holding talks with the management in afternoon today to work out a solution," Indian Airlines Technicians Association (IATA) President M S Kulkarni said.     

"We have already held several rounds of talks with the management but have not yet reached any agreement," he added.

However, he was hopeful that some agreement would be reached with the management on the salary issue.     

"We are hopeful that today's talks will yield some solution," Kulkarni said.     

If salaries are not paid on June 30, "then we will adopt the stand of no salary, no work," he said.     

While other employee unions in Air India are understood to have agreed to the management's decision to defer salaries of employees by 15 days, three unions — IATA, Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) and Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG) — have not agreed yet.

While IATA claims a membership of 2,600, ACEU and AIEG claim a membership of 12,000 and 8,000 members, respectively.

Air India's management on June 13 announced that payment of June salaries to its 31,000 employees was being deferred due to a liquidity crunch in the company.     

Later, it also requested its senior officials of the General Manager and above rank to voluntarily forego one month salary to tide over the company's financial crisis.