The Indian Airlines staffers are protesting the de-rostering of some profitable flights of Indian Airlines that will now be serviced by Air India Express. Some of these are the Delhi-Amritsar-Sharjah, Delhi-Lucknow-Sharjah and Calicut-Sharjah flights. Fewer Indian Airlines flight would mean that the “productivity link incentive” given to the employees would come down.

On March 12, work will be stalled for two hours from 6 am to 8 am and on March 17, the staff will go on a day-long strike. The Joint Action Committee comprising secretaries of the Indian Airlines Union on Tuesday submitted a notice for the strike to NACIL Chairman and Managing Director V Thulasidas. The JAC has been discussing the problem with the CMD for over two months now but was unable to get an assurance from him.

“During the merger we had been promised that we would get equal status as Air India employees. However, many of us have not even been paid arrears on our basic pay from 1997 onwards,” said K R Chidambaram, president of the Indian Airlines Officers Association.

There is also anger over what the protesters say is “different” promotion policies with regards to employees of the two airlines. Moreover, appointments on compensatory grounds have been discontinued as Air India did not have a similar policy.

The salary of pilots has also been a sticking point. “A co-pilot with Indian Airlines gets a salary of around Rs 1.3 lakh for working 65-70 hours per month. Air India co-pilots get Rs 1 lakh more for 45 hours of work per month,” said an Indian Airline pilot.