Air India pilots to call off their strike soon

Mangalore Today / CNN-IBN

New Delhi, July 3: Air India pilots have agreed to end their 57-day long strike on Tuesday. The pilots have given the decision to join back to work in writing to the Air India management. "We will decide on calling off the strike after consulting our lawyers. We are happy with the High Court order," Indian pilots’ Guild (IPG) said in a press release.

A total of 434 pilots were on strike and all of them have agreed to end the strike. Sources say Air India management will now consider the reinstatement of 100 odd pilots who were terminated earlier.

 

Agitating Air India pilots told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that they will call off their strike with immediate effect.

Air India management assured the court that it will sympathetically consider the pilots’ grievances, including reinstatement of sacked pilots.

Sources say pilots will decide on calling off strike after full court order at 4:30 pm on Tuesday.

"The court has made very positive observations. It has said that all pilots should be taken back and no distinction should be made between those sacked and others. We are happy with the court’s observations," Tauseef Mukadam, Joint Secretary of the Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG), which has been spearheading the strike, said on phone from Mumbai.

"We will decide on calling off the strike after consulting our lawyers and receiving a copy of the High Court order," he said.

Some other IPG leaders here said the court also told the management that all Air India aircraft should fly and all pilots should be allowed to join duty.

They said the High Court has asked all the striking pilots to file affidavits expressing their willingness to resume duty within 48 hours and directed both sides to appear for conciliation proceedings before the Chief Labour Commissioner on July six.

The report of the conciliation proceedings has to be tabled before the High Court on July nine, the IPG leaders said.

Over 400 cockpits crew went on a strike on May 7 on issues relating to career progression after their talks with Air India management and Civil Aviation Ministry officials failed. The pilots have also launched an indefinite hunger strike in Delhi and Mumbai since June 24.

Air India’s revenue loss due to the strike is estimated to have gone up to Rs 600 crore. It has also forced the airline to operate a curtailed international flight schedule days after the stir began.