Seventeen hours into the strike by a section of Air India (AI) pilots,the Delhi High Court ordered the pilots back to work and rapped the airline for delaying the resolution of issues of pay parity and working conditions. The court upheld the AI managements decision to de-recognise the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) the union of pilots from the erstwhile Indian Airlines spearheading the strike and the sacking of six union leaders. Late on Wednesday evening,the union said they had not received a copy of the court order,and the strike would continue until the sacked pilots were given back their jobs. Twenty-six domestic flights were cancelled and 7 combined today,flights from Delhi and Mumbai being the worst hit. A total of 129 flights were operated,and airline sources said several ICPA members had reported for duty in Delhi and Chennai. Only a handful went on strike. We will finalise a contingency plan if the situation worsens, said an AI official. Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi said the ICPAs action was irresponsible,ill-timed and deserved no mercy. If they think they can take Air India and the ministry for a ride,they are mistaken, Ravi said. I am not inviting them (the union) for talks. Ravi warned private airlines not to try to take advantage of the situation by raising fares unreasonably and inconveniencing passengers. I will ask the regulator to look into the fares, he said. Early in the day,AI struck back hard at the ICPA,sealing four regional offices of the union. By 1 pm,ICPA president Ashim Bhinder,general secretary Rishabh Kapoor,and four other pilots had been fired,and two H S Randhawa and Ritika Singh suspended. The union demanded the ouster of Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav,a CBI inquiry into the airlines losses,and the restoration of curtailed routes which it said had cut pilots flying hours and,therefore,their earnings. It said non-unionised executive pilots would join the agitation Thursday,reporting sick en masse. We have no faith in the current CMD and there is a complete trust deficit. They (the management) have repeatedly violated memorandums of understanding submitted to the ministry and the CLC, Bhinder said. In Mumbai,Kapoor said the pilots had chosen to strike work because taking the legal route would have been too time-consuming. Unfortunately in India,legal procedures take a long time,we will be on the verge of retirement if we took the legal route, Kapoor said. Several pilots cited the example of engineers from the erstwhile Indian Airlines,who have been fighting for parity with AI engineers in court for many years. ICPA,which represents 660 of the 1,700 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines,had given a notice for strike from March 1,following which the management had opened reconciliation proceedings. The meeting,called by the Chief Labour Commissioner,failed on Tuesday after AI advocated arbitration,which the union opposed. The ICPA has been seeking pay and service conditions on par with Air India pilots who fly longer routes on bigger aircraft,and has,over the last few months,demanded immediate relief. The management has been pleading that it faces a severe financial crunch. Indian Airlines was merged with Air India in 2007,but the airlines continue to follow separate HR policies. Salaries of the erstwhile Indian Airlines pilots are variable,tied to the number of flying hours. Over the last year,many pilots have seen their flying hours go down,allegedly because AI has withdrawn several flights. Earlier,our flying hours would average around 90 a month,now some months we are down to around 50. At the end of each month,we want to be assured of at least a fixed salary, said a pilot. In an open letter to AI employees Wednesday,Jadhav urged the pilots to take their grievances to the Justice Dharmadhikari Committee formed to look into all HR-related issues.
