Mumbai:
Some Air India pilots have threatened to go on strike to protest against the airline management's move to defer payment of salary for January to February 14.
"We demand that our salaries be disbursed by 5 pm on February 10, failing which we will go on flash strike," Indian Commercial Pilots Association General Secretary (ICPA) Capt Rishabh Kapoor said.
Kapoor said that, "the management has deferred the salary twice in this month," and that this was not acceptable.
On Tuesday, Air India cited a cash crunch and announced it was delaying payment of salary for January to its 30,000 employees. The national carrier had earlier said salary would be disbursed on February 10, but revised that to February 14 yesterday.
Pay day had already shifted ever since the airline began facing an acute financial crisis - Air India employees used to get their salary on the last day of the month, but the management had changed that to the 7th of the next month. The airline pays about Rs. 3,100 crore in salary every year.
The ICPA had written to Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi last month saying the airline management was "not serious" about addressing the pilots' concerns and had sought his "urgent intervention".
It also said if there was no response from the government, it could go ahead with serving notices for non-cooperation and would take other action soon which could affect flights.
Soon after taking charge last month, Ravi had sought the support of all employees of Air India to restore its lost glory and had said the staff and management should work in coordination to achieve this.
The ICPA represents pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and claims it has around 800 non-executive pilots under its umbrella. Another body, the Indian Pilots Guild, represents the cockpit crew of the pre-merger Air India. The two airlines were merged some years ago.
"We demand that our salaries be disbursed by 5 pm on February 10, failing which we will go on flash strike," Indian Commercial Pilots Association General Secretary (ICPA) Capt Rishabh Kapoor said.
Kapoor said that, "the management has deferred the salary twice in this month," and that this was not acceptable.
On Tuesday, Air India cited a cash crunch and announced it was delaying payment of salary for January to its 30,000 employees. The national carrier had earlier said salary would be disbursed on February 10, but revised that to February 14 yesterday.
Pay day had already shifted ever since the airline began facing an acute financial crisis - Air India employees used to get their salary on the last day of the month, but the management had changed that to the 7th of the next month. The airline pays about Rs. 3,100 crore in salary every year.
The ICPA had written to Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi last month saying the airline management was "not serious" about addressing the pilots' concerns and had sought his "urgent intervention".
It also said if there was no response from the government, it could go ahead with serving notices for non-cooperation and would take other action soon which could affect flights.
Soon after taking charge last month, Ravi had sought the support of all employees of Air India to restore its lost glory and had said the staff and management should work in coordination to achieve this.
The ICPA represents pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and claims it has around 800 non-executive pilots under its umbrella. Another body, the Indian Pilots Guild, represents the cockpit crew of the pre-merger Air India. The two airlines were merged some years ago.
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