Indian Airlines employees defer plans of mass casual leave

New Delhi: Passengers of state-owned carrier Indian would have heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday as employees of the carrier put off their plan to go on mass casual leave from Friday. The move follows a meeting between the carrier's management and the Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU). The employees have been negotiating release of ten years of wages, which are in arrears.

According to reports, though the meeting between the employee union and the management remained inconclusive, the two parties have agreed to meet again on May 28 to sort out issues. This conflicts with other reports, emanating from union sources, that employees would continue their sit-in protests till their demands were met.

Indian employees are angry that while employees of sister organizations, Air India and Pawan Hans, have been paid their respective dues, they alone have been denied the benefit. Negotiations with the management have been going on for the past three months.

The ACEU represents approximately 14,000 of the airline's total 18,000 staff.