Air India pilots and the management will again hold conciliation talks on
July 10 and 12 with the chief labour commissioner to resolve the deadlock after
the first round failed on Friday.
“The honourable (Delhi) High Court has directed us (pilots) to meet Air
India management on the 10th and the 12th. Thereafter the CLC will file a
report to the High Court on July 13. The High Court will take up the matter
that day,” Rohit Kapahi, committee member of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) told
IANS.
The High Court on Monday directed both the sides to hold conciliatory
meetings on July 10 and 12 under the supervision of the CLC.
“The impasse between us and the management continues even as we have filed
our affidavit of ending the strike with the High Court. However, the management
has not been forthcoming in resolving the issue,” Kapahi said.
Last week, the IPG had accused the management of going back on its
commitment to “sympathetically” consider their grievances even as nearly 300
pilots having allegiance to IPG started reporting to work after nearly three
months of strike.
After initially making 14 demands, the pilots are now only asking for
reinstatement of their 101 colleagues who were sacked during the strike.
The IPG late on Friday said in their talks with the management, Air India
officials expressed their inability to commit anything on reinstating pilots or
addressing their demands.
The pilots having allegiance to IPG called off their strike after Air India
last on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that it would sympathetically consider
their grievances.
According to an airline official, nearly 300 pilots belonging to the IPG
have begun reporting back to work.
Before resuming work, the pilots will have to get their fitness checked by
doctors and undergo refresher training and a mandatory route flying check.
For the route flying check, the pilots who have not flown an aircraft for
over 30 days will operate a flight with a check (instructor) pilot who will
oversee their performance.
After that, the pilots resuming duty will be assigned a flying schedule.
The trouble for the airline started on May 8 when IPG members took mass
sick leave, protesting against the move to provide Boeing—787 Dreamliner
training to pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines.
Air India and Indian Airlines were merged in 2007 to form a single entity
to overcome their poor performance and in the hope that the step would result
in a Rs.1,000 crore profit in the first year itself.
The strike crippled Air India’s international operations and caused an
estimate revenue loss of Rs.625 crore.
The losses will keep on mounting till operations are completely restored.
The grounded fleet of Boeing 777s, unused manpower and absence from key
routes have hit the airlines’ chances of a financial turnaround.
Currently, the airline is operating only 38 of its 45 international
services. Among the axed destinations are Hong Kong, Osaka, Seoul and Toronto.
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