After the cancellation of at least 44 Air India domestic flights from Delhi and over 50 nationwide on Saturday, domestic pilots of Air India called off their undeclared day-long strike on Saturday evening after the airline management agreed to pay them two months arrears of Productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) by January 20, an additional month of arrears of PLI by February 20 as well as clear all their PLI and other dues by March.
About 70 pilots decided not to fly on Saturday, saying they had not been paid their PLI — that comprises about 80 per cent of their wages — for five months and their basic salaries for two months. Thousands of passengers faced tremendous inconvenience at the New Delhi IGI airport as a result of the undeclared strike. A large number of pilots stationed in New Delhi led the agitation. This was the third pilot strike in Air India in less than three years, with the previous two strikes being in 2009 and 2011. But this time around, the strike ended very quickly.
“All flight operations will return to normal by Saturday night,” Air India CMD Rohit Nandan told this newspaper. Sources said all dues of the pilots will be cleared by March subject to the clearance of Air India’s Financial Restructuring Plan by the government. Air India officials said stranded passengers were accommodated on flights of private airlines at no extra cost.
Top sources said that Mr Nandan secured the approval of recently-appointed civil aviation minister Ajit Singh and top officials of the civil aviation ministry to give the concerned assurances to the pilots.
The undeclared strike was the first such test for both Mr Singh and Mr Nandan. But the government successfully managed to tide over the crisis by evening.
“The government has been prompt in seeing our legitimate demands. We too have decided to show faith in them. All pilots have been requested to report for duty,” a pilot who was part of the negotiations told this newspaper.
By 5.30 am on Saturday, the trouble began after pilots told the airline they were facing too much of financial stress due to lack of payment of PLI for the past five months and that therefore it was unsafe for them to operate flights. The pilots did not report sick. Some of the pilots bluntly told the management that they would not fly till their dues were cleared. However, the pilots did not officially declare it a strike since no strike notice had been sent.