The services of government-owned Indian will be disrupted on Thursday and Friday on account of employee protests over wage arrears.

On May 17, employees affiliated to the Air Corporation Employees' Union, the biggest of the airline's seven unions, will stage a walk-out between 9 and 11.30 am. On May 18, they will take mass casual leave. ACEU accounts for 14,000 of Indian's 18,000 employees.

Though pilots and engineers will not be a part of the strike, flight operations will come to a standstill since ground-handling services will be disrupted. There will be no ground staff for loading, unloading, boarding assistance, passenger coach management and other critical activities.

The decision to go on the offensive was taken after parleys between the union and IA management broke down. ACEU has demanded that employees be paid ten years' arrears on wages, which the management said would result in an unacceptably high outgo of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).

"The management asked them to take five years' arrears but that was not accepted," said an IA spokesman.

Although IA said the issue would be sorted out in the presence of a labour conciliation officer, the airline has drawn up a contingency plan for rescheduling and combining flights.

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Said IA Chairman & Managing Director Vishwapati Trivedi, "We are talking to them and we are hopeful that we could settle differences of opinion soon."

However, J K Badola, general secretary of ACEU, said, "We met the management on May 10 and had a meeting on the issue, but the outcome was not satisfactory."

Subsequently, Badola said, union representatives met Trivedi on May 11 and 12 but made no headway. Officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which is required to clear IA's wage pact, pointed out that the government has set out broader guidelines for employee compensation in the context of the Air-India and IA merger, which is expected in July.

"The difference in wages would have a far-reaching impact on the merger with Air-India. We are 10 years behind Air-India in terms of career progress and arrears. If they can do it for Pawan Hans and Air-India, why can they not do it for IA?" asked Badola.

ACEU leaders are terming the May 17 and 18 actions "non-cooperation" but say they could go on indefinite strike if their demands are not met.

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