Air India says salary as agreed; Union meeting tomorrow

Amid reports that lower grade employees of Air India are unlikely to get their salaries tomorrow as agreed upon earlier, a section of the air- carrier's employees unions is holding a meeting here to discuss its future strategy.     

"We are discussing the issue and will announce our future course of action in case the management fails to honour its commitment of paying salaries to the lower category of employees by July 3," an Air Corporation Employees Union leader told PTI here today.     

The union leader said so far there has been no communication from the management about payment of salaries tomorrow.     

Meanwhile in New Delhi an Air India spokesperson said: "Air India is working towards paying wages and salaries to its employees in the lower grades on July 3 as part of the decision finalised at a meeting with the unions last week".     

Aviation Industry Employees Guild General Secretary George Abraham threatened a demonstration tomorrow in case the management fails to pay  their salaries as agreed upon earlier.      

In end-June, the airline's management had agreed to pay salaries to its lower grade employees by July 3.

This followed protests from the unions which had threatened a strike if employees were not paid their June salaries on time.    

Earlier, on June 13, Air India had expressed its inability to pay June salaries to its 31,000 employees on June 30 citing a liquidity crunch in the company.     

The national airline had also requested senior officials of General Manager rank and above to forego one month's salary to help the organisation tide over the crisis.     

It was only after protests by the unions that the management agreed to pay the lower category of employees their June salaries.