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Air India staff agitate on salary, flights unaffected
Air India said its operations remained unaffected on Friday despite a large section of employees resorting to a two-hour agitation in protest against non-payment of salary for June as promised. The employees walked out from work between 1 pm and 3 pm.
Air India said its operations remained unaffected on Friday despite a large section of employees resorting to a two-hour agitation in protest against non-payment of salary for June as promised. The employees walked out from work between 1 pm and 3 pm.
“The two-hour agitation by a section of Air India employees failed to have any impact on flights anywhere on Air India. The management had taken requisite steps to ensure total normalcy in operations so that passengers were not inconvenienced,” Air India said in a statement.
The timing of the agitation, a lean period, helped the management to handle the situation. The management claimed to have put a contingency plan, even though employees said their objective was not to cripple the airline’s operations.
“All departure and arrivals during the strike were as per normal schedule,” the Air India statement added.
The employees affiliated to two unions — the Air Corporation Employees Union and Aviation Industry Employees Guild, representing over 20,000 Air India employees across India — walked out from work despite warnings from the airline’s management.
Air India had warned to take strong action against the protesting employees, including deduction of wages and withdrawal of Productivity Linked Incentive payment until further orders.
The employees — mostly working on ground duty — were unhappy with the management for not keeping its June 29 promise to pay the salary on June 3. On June 15, the airline management had informed the employees that they would get their salary 15 days later due to acute financial crisis.
