A section of Air India pilots, who threatened to go on strike from Wednesday demanding pay parity and better working conditions, on Tuesday night deferred their agitation till March 15 following tripartite talks with the carrier's management and chief labour commissioner in New Delhi.
"Following assurances from Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi and Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi that they would ask Air India management to look into the issues, we have decided to defer the strike till March 15," said Rishabh Kapoor, general secretary of Indian Commercial Pilots' Association.
Kapoor made the announcement after a marathon ten-hour meeting between the ICPA, Air India management and chief labour commissioner as part of an attempt at conciliation on Tuesday evening.
The ICPA, which represents around 800 pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines, had served a 14-day strike notice, under Section 22 of the Industrial Disputes Act to airline CMD Arvind Jadhav, charging the management with having failed to address their grievances and violated agreements on issues like pay parity and better working conditions.
Ravi had on Monday appealed to the pilots to withdraw the strike and announced the setting up of a three-member committee to consider the demands of the pilots.
The union had claimed that "various dates and deadlines have come and gone and the management has failed to keep its promises and assurances".
As a result, the erstwhile Indian Airlines' pilots have been "incurring heavy financial losses".
The ICPA also alleged "racial discrimination in their perpetrated by the national carrier", indicating the differences in pays and perks offered to expatriate pilots Air India has kept on its rolls.
Apart from differences in salaries and working conditions of pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India, the ICPA members are also protesting delay in payment of salaries, "violation" of a memorandum of settlement signed in November 2009 and the management's "failure" to implement the 6th pay commission recommendations.
