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July 24, 2001
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Money > Business Headlines > Report July 24, 2001 |
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A-I engineers seek pay parity with pilotsV Phani Kumar The Air-India Aircraft Engineers' Association, a union comprising 500 aircraft engineers, has locked horns with the Air-India management, demanding parity in remuneration with the airline's pilots. Alternatively, the engineers want permission to join other international airlines. The association also warned that its members would be forced to go on strike if the management failed to favourably consider its demands. H K Rout, president of AIAEA, said, "Air-India's aircraft engineers earn only 21 per cent of the pilots' salary against 74 per cent internationally. The salary hikes we received in the last two years also were poor when compared to that for pilots or the flight engineers. This apart, the management has been either refusing to accept the resignation of engineers who want to quit or has charge-sheeted some of them, thereby affecting their employment chances elsewhere." The AIAEA also said the pilots and aircraft engineers were not allowed to participate in the airline's voluntary retirement scheme. Among other things, the AIAEA said the airline management violated the agreement with the union by conferring "lucrative" overseas postings on managers, instead of aircraft engineers, even though it costs much more to the airline. An Air-India spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. However, senior officials of the airline, said, "The decision to post managers overseas was taken because in the '96s', the engineers caused frequent flight disruptions resulting in inconvenience to the passengers. As for the pay-parity issue, even the managing director of Air-India earns just 10 per cent of the pilots' pay." Industry sources said an airline has to incur exorbitant costs to train pilots and engineers. Due to the huge costs involved, there is a shortage of qualified personnel, thereby resulting in reluctance on part of an airline to let go of the pilots and aircraft engineers. Powered by YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO READ:
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