IA staff call off strike, wrest major concessions

Indian Airlines's largest union, the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), called off its nationwide strike this afternoon after the management made it major concessions.

In a clear climbdown from the tough talk by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel yesterday when he threatened a lockout, the IA management accepted most of the ACEU's conditions on arrear payments and career advancement.

The IA management will now fork out Rs 267 crore for arrears of the staff from 2000. This will now be paid in 18 months instead of the earlier deadline of 36 months.

It has also agreed to frontload the payment with a lumpsum in the first month. The only issue on which the management did not concede ground was the union's demand to pay arrears from 1997.

"The workers have decided to call off the strike and things will get back to normal in a couple of hours," announced Union Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla after a meeting with ACEU members and IA management this afternoon. The suspension order against 27 employees was also revoked.

"There were certain points in the management's promotion policy that were being ignored. Now, they have been taken care of," said J K Badola, general secretary, ACEU.

The strike had disrupted about 40 per cent of IA flights yesterday with close to 62 cancellations. Airline officials say there were 103 cancellations today and operating flights were delayed by about an hour during the latter half of the day.

The management has made some concessions on promotions. Union sources say that a Grade 9 employee (like a traffic superintendent) who has worked in that position for six years will be promoted to grade 12 (assistant manager level). That would mean a salary increase of around Rs 7,500 a month.

Also, a grade 9 employee who has worked in that position for three years will now be promoted to grade 9A (as a traffic officer), which would mean a salary increase of Rs 6,000 a month. The changes would help over 1,000 employees.

Union sources added that about 1,000 lower grade staff, like helpers, whose promotions have been pending since 1997, will be promoted automatically without any examination.

Things gradually returned to normal in the evening after employees returned to work.