The ICPA's strike has precipitated the crisis already faced by Maharaja.
For the past four years, Air India (AI) has been sleeping over the demand of the ICPA - a body that represents the pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines (IA), which was merged with AI to form the National Aviation Company of India in 2007 - to bring the pilots' salaries on a par with those of their AI colleagues.
Till now, to stop the ICPA from going on strike, the former civil aviation minister, Praful Patel, had given assurances to the association that its demands would be met, an IA pilot claimed.
The parliamentary committee on public sector undertakings, in 2010, blamed the UPA government for having forced the merger of the two carriers that dragged the airlines into financial and administrative mess.
"The so-called merger is a kind of marriage between incompatible individuals having wide variances with hardly any meeting ground," V. Kishore Chandra S. Deo, House panel chairman, had stated in his report. The report had suggested a de-merger - into Nacil-IA and Nacil-AI. It was only recently that a committee was constituted to look into the issue of the integration of staff of the erstwhile IA and AI into Air India Limited.
The civil aviation ministry said the committee, chaired by Justice (retd) D. M. Dharmadhikari, held its meeting on Wednesday and decided to invite written suggestions from all unions, associations, individuals and groups of employees within the erstwhile companies.
The panel is expected to give its report in five months, amicably resolving the pay and other integration issues assigned to it. It will meet next in the second week of May, the ministry said in a statement.
Till the issues are resolved, the employees of both the erstwhile companies would continue to draw their wages and allowances in terms of the settlement signed with their respective union/ association prior to the merger.
Former civil aviation secretary Roy Paul agreed that the pilots' issue were a result of the ill- conceived integration business. "If these two airlines, which have different cultures, were kept separate, these issues would not have come up at all," Paul said.
Enquiries revealed that the average salary of an AI co-pilot is Rs 3-4 lakh per month and those of a senior captain, depending on his experience, is between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 8 lakh per month.
IA co-pilots, however, get Rs 2.25 lakh to Rs 3.25 lakh per month and a commander's average earnings are Rs 4-5 lakh a month.
IA pilots are also under-utilised as their flying hours have come down to, on an average, 49 hours a month from around 70-80 hours per month earlier. "The aircraft are also under-utilised because of their withdrawal from profitable routes," alleged ICPA chief Capt. A. S. Bhinder.
The striking pilots, in a letter to PM Manmohan Singh, have demanded an inquiry by "the CBI or any appropriate body" into the scams of the airline.
The ICPA has also sought probe into the cancellation and withdrawal of flights on profitable routes, bilaterals given away to either private airlines or foreign carriers and investigation of aircraft acquisition orders of 111 new planes between the erstwhile IA and AI. According to the panel on public sector undertakings: "The national carrier has been disadvantaged by the allocation of prime commercial routes to private airlines such as Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Emirates." It has suggested "stringent accountability procedures" and a "transparent review" by the aviation ministry of the route network.
AI had earlier ordered 111 new aircraft, for about Rs 50,000 crore, when it had no money to pay for them. The federation of NACIL employees has demanded detailed investigation into the order "which defied logic". In agreement, Paul said AI was in a mess because of excessive aircraft purchase orders.
The ICPA has also asked for probe into aircraft under-utilisation, facilities like engine overhaul shops at Delhi and Mumbai and simulators at the Hyderabad's central training establishment - all of which caused a huge loss to the company. According to the association, prior to the merger, AI and IA had suffered a loss of Rs 455 crore and Rs 280 crore respectively.
But within three years, the figure shot up to Rs 16,000 crore.
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