Air India pilots seek urgent meeting with Puri over wage cuts

Two pilots’ unions on Monday wrote to Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri seeking an urgent meeting with him to discuss the “indefinite and unilateral” salary deductions faced by the pilots of Air India.

The two unions — Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association and Indian Pilots’ Guild — wrote a letter to Puri informing him that workers of Air India, Air India Express and Alliance Air pilots are facing wage cut of up to 70 per cent and sought his immediate intervention. “The frontline workers of Air India, Air India Express and Alliance Air pilots continue to be shackled with an indefinite and unilateral wage cut of up to 70 per cent while indifferent company top management contributes a namesake 10 per cent,” the letter said.

It said the unions, through their representations, had shown how Air India management’s cost-cutting is mala fide and asked why barbaric austerity measures apply only to Air India pilots. The unions also said the airline’s top management has let the pilots down tremendously. “Pilots who test positive for COVID need to undergo quarantine/ hospitalisation. This is followed by a NOC, mandatory medical checks and DGCA approval. The entire process to get back to flying takes more than a month. Is it fair to deny these pilots their livelihood due to an occupational hazard? Is this how MoCA wants to treat workmen who are making the Vande Bharat Flights possible?” it asked.