Air India pilots withdraw strike call

Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) today said it has withdrawn the strike notice given to the Air India management following the latter’s assurance that all pending issues will resolved over the next two months.

Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) today said it has withdrawn the strike notice given to the Air India management following the latter’s assurance that all pending issues will resolved over the next two months.

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“We had a successful meeting with the management following which we have withdrawn our strike call notice with immediate effect,” ICPA General Secretary, RS Otaal, said tonight.

ICPA, the non executive pilot body of erstwhile Indian Airlines, had written a letter on November 2 to the NACIL Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav threatening to strike work from November 24, if the management did not resolve the long pending issues, including payment of their pending allowances.

However, after a reconciliatory meeting with the management on November 14 and then on November 20, the strike call was deferred for November 30.

“The management has assured that all our pending allowances will be cleared by February and rest of the issues will also be resolved,” Otaal said.

The meeting lasted for more than eight hours, Otaal said, adding that Air India’s General Manager (Operations) represented the management.

The pilots’ body was agitated over the continuous deferment of salary allowances for the past 4-5 months.

The body also claimed it was the “erroneous policies of the management which were responsible for the losses” that the national carrier had accrued over the years and demanded “fixing responsibility for the mess”.

Earlier, Otaal had said, “The strike has been called to save Air India. We intend to tell the public and the political leadership what is wrong with Air India.”