Air India will not bow down before the threat of a strike held out by any union of the airline in future and the airline could even be “shutdown” in a worst-case scenario if other unions strike work after implementation of the Justice Dharmadhik-ari report on pay parity and other issues, top civil aviation ministry sources said on Friday. As far as the ongoing pilot strike is concerned, the ministry is likely to request the Indian Air Force (IAF) to set up medical boards to examine pilots who had earlier reported sick, sources said.
Union leaders of the IPG returned disappointed to Mumbai from Delhi on Friday even as the strike entered its 12th day on Friday night with no solution in sight.
Government sources also said several measures such as computerisation of the rostering system of pilots would be completed. The Centre may also soon consider raising the educational criteria for pilot-training to at least graduation, sources said.
The government is also willing to consider reinstatement of 71 sacked pilots (who are part of the ongoing strike) on a case-by-case basis, but there will be no recognition of the recently-derecognised IPG that is leading the current pilot strike.
On Friday, some of the striking pilots of the IPG returned to Mumbai a disappointed lot, citing “unresponsiveness” from the management for talks. The core committee of the IPG is in charge of the negotiations with the government and the Air India management ever since the strike began.
A statement from the guild said, “Respecting the sentiments of the Supreme Court, the Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) core committee was in the national capital for the past six days, sending messages of openness and availability to hold talks with officials of management/ministry. However, neither the management nor any official of the ministry has responded to any conciliatory gestures or efforts of the IPG to resolve the situation amicably”.