Air India pays out a month’s PLI, keeps two pending - pilots bristle
12 Nov 2009
New Delhi: With a strike threat from the pilots union looming over its head, Air India management paid out a month's incentives and allowances to its 30,000 employees yesterday but has maintained arrears of two months. The pilots Guild has warned it will strike work from 24 November if their demands are not met by 20 November.
According to pilot representatives, they had received their PLI/flying allowance, but only for the month of August. The payment for September and October has been kept pending.
While the original strike notice given by the non-executive pilots comes into effect from today, the management has been asked by the Central Labour Commissioner to decide on the demands by 20 November in a bid to avoid strike action.
Early in the month, the cash-strapped carrier received Rs500 crore as working capital from a consortium of banks. The loan was secured by the carrier to meet salary payments by 10 November and avert strike action, as announced by the pilots Guild.