Pilot unions to meet Aviation minister Scindia over AI divestment

Pilot unions will be meeting newly appointed Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia against the Air India disinvestment and reduced allowance of the employees across the country.

New Delhi: As the Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia took charge on Friday, two unions are set to meet him against the Air India disinvestment and reduced allowance of the employees across the country. Speaking to ETV Bharat, Indian Commercial Pilots' Association, general secretary, Capt. T Praveen Keerthi, said, "We will be requesting for a meeting with the new Aviation Minister on the issues related to Air India divestment and regarding wages."

He further added that post-Air India divestment will have a bad impact on the pilots and we would address this issue to the Aviation Minister on priority. In April 2020, disinvestment-bound Air India had cut its pilots salaries by a massive 55 per cent to deal with the liquidity crunch in the wake of the pandemic. In May this year, the ICPA letter sent to the then Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri stated that the assurances given by the minister in the past acted as a bulwark against the alleged apathetic behaviour of Air India management towards the pilots during these trying times.

"All the AAI union employees held a protest on July 6 against the management for a possible reduction in allowances of employees in view of Covid-19. We have received information that the AAI board in a meeting held on Wednesday has approved a reduction of 50 per cent in the perks of employees," said Balraj Singh Ahlawat, general secretary of Airports Authority Employees Union.

"With 50 per cent reduction in the allowances, the effective reduction in the salaries will be 17.5 per cent. Our union will now be meeting Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to look into the matter and request him to ask the AAI to take the repeal the order," he added. At present, 17,000 employees come under the Joint Forum of Associations of Airports Authority of India while the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association is a representative body for the Indian Airlines Limited (Air India Ltd.), having a strength of more than 1,000 pilots in the union.