DESPITE of the promises made by the chairman and the managing director of the National Air Carrier of India, Air India, Shri Arvind Jadav, in a letter showing his regrets for not being able to release the salary statement by June 8, assuring the employees that the salary would be paid in a short while, 44,000 employees have not yet received their salary for the month of May. Air India has over 30,000 permanent employees and 14,000 on contractual basis across the operation spectrum.
Major union representatives of the Air India said on June 27 that if their salaries were not paid immediately the employees might go on strike.
Earlier in April-May this year, members of the Indian Commercial Pilot Association representing Air India employees, went on a ten-day strike to demand pay parity with colleagues. During the pilot’s strike, the national carrier Air India cancelled more than 1,000 flights, leading to a loss of about Rs 200 crore.
Two leading national carriers Indian Airlines and Air India were merged in 2007 and since then the airline has not shown any profit. Air India is the biggest air carrier of the country, accumulated losses stand at Rs.13,000 crore. Earlier, this month some of the Air India’s domestic and international flights were forced to ground as oil firms denied it fuel on grounds of non-payment of past dues.
