Air India warns of exemplary action after pilots skip work

New Delhi, Sep 5 (PTI) Air India today warned of"exemplary disciplinary action" against employees "sabotaging"the progress of the national carrier after some pilots did notreport for duty in protest against non-payment of allowancesand other issues, partially affecting its operations onSunday. Such acts, especially at this juncture when all aremaking efforts together to achieve a turnaround in theorganisation and focusing on welfare of employees, are "justnot acceptable" and shall not be tolerated under anycircumstances, Air India Chairman and Managing DirectorAshwani Lohani said in a stern message. Recently, there have been delays/cancellations of flightsdue to indiscipline by a small section of pilots. Suchinstances, besides loss of revenue, cause tremendousinconvenience to passengers and lower the image of theorganisation, he said. "Such attempts at sabotaging the progress of Air Indiaand also instigating by mischievous elements shall not betolerated under any circumstances and employees responsiblefor the same shall be liable for exemplary disciplinaryaction," he said. Domestic flight services of the government-owned airlinewere partially affected yesterday after a section of pilots,owing allegiance to the Indian Commercial Pilots Association(ICPA), decided not to report for duty in protest againstpending issues related to salary and allowances, besidesalleged denial of weekly-off. On September 1, the ICPA had flagged continuing payanomalies in a strongly-worded letter to Air India’s Director(Finance). "Our patience has run thin. We will wait till September 7for the anomalies in pay and allowances to be corrected andinternational layover allowance to be paid up to date failingwhich we will be forced to take any action as deemed fit tosafeguard the interests of our members," ICPA had said. The pilots are also angry over the delay in payment ofinternational crew layover allowance that they are entitled towhen flying abroad. Some pilots who fly narrow-body, mainly Airbus A320,aircraft did not turn up for duty on Sunday, affectingoperations of around 10 to 12 flights. After some ICPA pilots stopped taking duty calls abouttheir respective flight schedules, Air India management wasforced to deploy wide-body Boeing 777 and 787 pilots foroperations on key trunk routes such as Mumbai, Chennai,Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. ICPA represents around 750 pilots, majority of whom arefrom erstwhile Indian Airlines. PTI IAS RAM SMN ZMNSMN