People employed as pilots with Air India have been slogging it out waiting for their payments to be cleared by the state owned airline since months. When their patience exhausted over the pending amount, which included international layover subsistence allowance amounts and flying allowance, the pilots threatened that they will go on strike. This threat prompted Air India into action over the pending payments and they cleared the dues of almost 800 pilots
hurriedly.
The outstanding amounts, the State owned Air India, owed to the pilots have been released. The Management has given the nod for international layover subsistence allowance and flying allowance dues. These dues had accumulated over time, after the new pay structure rules had been implemented since January, and now the outstanding amounts have been released, for these employees.
The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), who had fixed May 10th as the retaliatory action date, saw the due clearance step taken by the management, and decided not to take an industrial action against Air India, because they received their payments.
The IPCA sources have confirmed “The management today paid our flying allowance dues, which it had been defaulting since January,’ but the total amount is still pending.
According to reports “The ICPA, the pilots’ association of the airlines’ narrow body (Airbus A320) fleet, had decided to start an agitation if the expenses were not cleared. The IPCA had also decided not to ply any flights over the “due issue”.
They had given a letter to Air India Director (Finance) saying “We have got written commitment from your office that the flying allowance will be paid on May 5 but looks like the management has gone back to its old feat of defaulting on commitments. This is greatly affecting our livelihood, defaulting on EMI’s and further commitments. In lieu of the above, we will be directing our members not to undertake any flying duties till our legitimate payment towards flying allowance, is made as per Ministry of Civil Aviation approval.”
The association had asked for their international layover dues to be cleared by the May 10th or else they had decided to stop all international flights. This had jerked the authorities into action and they ended up paying the amounts due to the pilots.
