Most AAI staff spurn Delhi airport co offer

Only 9 per cent of the over 2,300 employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) working in Delhi airport have opted for a voluntary scheme to join the GMR group-promoted Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), the public-private joint venture that is modernising the airport.

This is despite the fact that the AAI employees who joined the new company, according to DIAL, have received an average 75 per cent salary increase based on a scheme that was offered to all the employees at the start of this year. The average age of those who accepted the offer is between 30 and 35.

Confirming the development, a DIAL spokesperson said: "Only 155-odd AAI employees who were in AAI are now working for DIAL." AAI did not release the rest who accepted the offer.

The spokesperson added that the contract with AAI required DIAL to make the offer to 60 per cent of the employees by May 2009, but the company extended the offer to all employees this year.

To sweeten the offer, which was open for two months, DIAL offered AAI employees two increments on their basic salary, a one-time bonus and protection of any pay revision which was given by AAI till January 1, 2007.

Asked why most employees have rejected the deal, MK Pandhe, a leader with the Centre for Indian Trade Union and a key force behind the AAI Employees Union joint forum, said the staff were refusing to join DIAL because the company was trying to dissolve the union and the GMR group had a bad record in labour relations.

"They are making false assurances, trying to change the conditions of employment and openly telling employees that if you join DIAL you should separate yourself from the union. They are also trying to evict our union office which is within the airport," Pandhe said.

AAI Employees Union leader M K Ghosal added: "Why should we talk or even join DIAL at all?"

DIAL has also earmarked around Rs 200 crore that it will need to pay AAI in 2009 as superannuation benefits for employees who have not opted for a transfer to the new company under the terms of its agreement.