An agitation by Air India pilots over the non-payment of salaries since September was called off late on Saturday evening, after the management assured the pilots that the airline would part pay the pending salary in January and February and normalise the payments by the end of this financial year.
“The agitation will not move to the next day, as we have been assured of timely payment by the chairman and managing director himself,” said a senior pilot, who did not want to be identified.
In a meeting with the pilots, Air India CMD Rohit Nandan assured that the Productivity-Linked Incentives (PLI) for September and October will be paid by January 20, the PLI for November and the salary for January will be paid in February and the salary payment schedule will be normalised by March 31, 2012, after the financial restructuring plan is approved.
A senior Air India official confirmed: “The CMD assured us of this. The payments will be made on time. The airline will get money for operating VVIP flights.
It has also asked the government to release Rs 250 crore from the contingency fund to enable airline to make urgent payments. That is due with the government. And, once the financial restructuring plan is approved, AI will get equity infusion and interest payment burden will also be reduced,” said a top airline executive on the condition of anonymity.
Earlier on Saturday, as many as 36 Air India flights, operating in the domestic and short-haul international sectors, were cancelled after more than 40 of the airline’s pilots did not turn up for duty.
The pilots, from the erstwhile Indian Airlines, stayed off duty on the ground that they were mentally stressed because of non-payment of salaries.
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“We managed the chaos today by merging flights and booking passengers of cancelled flights on other airlines,” said an Air India official, who did not want to be identified. He added that not only the executives but even the junior pilots had not reported to work.
Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said a part of the employees’ salaries would be paid by the end of next week. “I am meeting the finance minister on Tuesday and will discuss this with him. By the end of next week, we may be able to pay the salaries. I won’t say all the allowances will be paid, but most should be cleared,” he said.
Lately, Air India has seen lot of resistance from pilots over non-payment of salaries, and with demand for pay parity. Last April, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) had gone on a strike, demanding pay parity.
This agitation was uncalled for, as the airline was trying to pay a month’s salary PLI since the day Nandan took charge as the CMD. Senior pilots say the agitation may be a result of factionalism among the pilots, as the elections of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) are a round the corner. They add that this could also be the handiwork of some pilots opposed to the current managing committee.
The airline has accumulated losses of Rs 20,000 crore. Besides, it has a debt of around Rs 43,000 crore on its books and does not have the money to pay salaries.
The airline has to pay about Rs 230 crore to oil companies by January 22, besides more than Rs 400 crore in interest and aircraft loan payments. Apart from these, there are payments to be made to vendors and catering companies, and for aircraft repair, servicing of IT and reservation systems, and agent commissions that it has to account for each month.