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Air India employees call off stir after management cracks whip

Several more employees involved in the strike which began yesterday afternoon and disrupted hundreds of flights, are likely to be either terminated or suspended, sources said.

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Almost 30 hours after they went on a flash strike, Air India (AI) employees agreed to resume work on Wednesday evening after the airline management served termination orders to 17 leaders and suspended 15 engineers.

Official sources said JB Kadiyan, general secretary of the Air Corporation Employees’ Union (ACEU), and YV Raju, general secretary of the All India Aircraft Engineers Association, are among those against whom action has been taken.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi high court stayed the strike, barring employees from obstructing flight operations. Chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav said though the unions have withdrawn the strike, it would take 2-4 days for normal operations to resume. But the damage has already been done.    

The airline lost Rs12 crore in revenue due to the cancellation of over 100 flights, mostly domestic, since Tuesday. Jadhav said 3,000 employees were on strike and their action had a bearing on 30,000 passengers with over 6,000 stranded at various airports in the country.

Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel briefed prime minister Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and other cabinet members about the strike on Wednesday morning.

It is believed the cabinet unanimously felt there is a need to take strict action and not allow the striking employees to go unpunished.

“Irresponsible behaviour like this needs strong action. The AI management is free to take appropriate action, including strong measures,” Patel said, adding that the government would not like to interfere into the issue.

He came down heavily on the striking employees and said they not only caused inconvenience to thousands of travellers, but also hurt the image and finances of the national carrier. He took specific exception to the timing of the strike, noting that it happened just as AI was dealing with the Mangalore crash on Saturday.

With Wednesday’s HC order, the earlier notice given by the ACEU for a strike from May 31 also becomes invalid. On whether the airline was willing to consider employee demands on wages, Jadhav said any salary increase should be followed by increase in productivity and responsibility. He said this issue would be taken up with the Chief Labour Commissioner.

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