Pay row: Labour commissioner sends notice to Air India
MUMBAI: Following the dispute over the pay structure between Air India management and its pilots, the regional labour commissioner (RLC) of Mumbai recently issued a show-cause notice to the airline for allegedly violating service contract norms for its pilots.
In the show cause notice, which according to airline officials was received by Air India on February 1, the RLC has asked the Air India (AI) chairman and managing director (CMD) why a legal proceeding should not be initiated against them over the alleged violation of pilots’ service contract norms including revision of wages.
The RLC has given the CMD and management 10 days to respond to the said notice.
The Indian Pilot Guild (IPG), which represents the pilots operating the wide-body Boeing fleet of Air India, alleges the airline has restructured the wages of pilots who fly wide-body aircraft despite a Bombay high court (HC) order restraining the management from taking a unilateral decision to restructure the wages.
However, Air India spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.
The assistant labour commissioner’s notice (a copy of which is with HT) to the airline said that since December 2018, the airline management had reduced the pay structure of pilots who are members of the IPG, which is a violation of the HC’S order.
IPG pilots said that Air India is going ahead with its decision to revise their salaries in accordance with a 2016 agreement with Airbus pilots of the airline, even when the HC asked to follow the existing pay structures.
“We consider this to be a contempt of court and hence, we sent a notice to the airline about it in December. In response to the notice, the labour commissioner had called the airline for reconciliation on January 11,” said a senior AI pilot.
Pilots operating Boeing aircraft, who are opposing the decision to revise their salaries so that it is similar to pilots operating narrow body (Airbus) aircraft, are on a ‘non- cooperation’ agitation, leading to flight operational issues last week.