BackAir India pilots’ union vote in favour of strike
It is not clear if ICPA will serve a strike notice immediately
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Mumbai: Air India Ltd is staring at a strike as one of its pilot unions has voted in favour of it in a secret ballot, whose outcome was declared on Sunday. In a vote on whether to declare strike or not, members of Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) from across all the four regions have voted in favour of it.
“An emergency meeting was held today at ICPA central office for declaring the secret ballot results," ICPA general secretary T. Praveen Keerthi wrote to its members in a letter dated 13 September.
“We would like to inform you that we are overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and support shown by our members by participating in the secret ballot and all the four regions have voted in favour of strike," Keerthi wrote. Mint has reviewed the letter.
It is not yet clear whether ICPA, which consists of 660 members, will serve a strike notice immediately.
The members are opposing the 20 August Air India notification removing pilots from the workman category, thereby effectively barring the flight commanders from being part of any union.
The airlines, in a clarification to the ministry of labour and employment, said the role of the pilot in command at Air India is of a managerial and administrative nature and may not fall under the definition of workmen.
The ICPA vote in favour of strike comes at a time when the new Air India chairman and managing director Ashwani Lohani after taking over cautioned against indiscipline. “The organisation shall always maintain zero tolerance to indiscipline," he wrote in his first letter to employees on 11 September.
Lohani, a 1980 batch Indian Railways Service Officer, assumed charge on 31 August as chairman and managing director of Air India for a period of three years.
The debt-laden airline is surviving on a ₹ 30,000-crore government bailout. The airline, with a total debt of ₹ 40,000-crore as on 31 March, is expected to turn around only by 2018-19.
In June, the aviation ministry asked merchant banker SBI Capital Markets Ltd to review the turnaround plan of the loss-making airline in the backdrop of changes in the operating environment and increased competition.
Air India is expected to post a loss of ₹ 3,900 crore for the year ended 31 March 2014, numbers for which have not been disclosed. It posted a loss of ₹ 5,100 crore in 2012-13 and a loss of ₹ 7,100 crore in the preceding fiscal year.
Air India flies to an international network of 34 destinations across the US, Europe, Far East and Southeast Asia and the Gulf.
The airline’s domestic network covers 50 destinations, including far-flung areas of the northeast, Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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