Indian staff call off strike

The employees of the state-owned carrier Indian called off their strike on Thursday after talks with the airline management and the civil aviation ministry. The civil aviation ministry assured to address the Indian staff's long-pending demands, including implementation of career progression scheme.

After a three-hour meeting with the agitating employees, Civil Aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla said the strike has been called off and the issues are being amicably settled.

The ministry's top brass agreed to reinstate 27 suspended employees besides assuring to implement career progression which is currently in vogue in Air India.

 "We held dicussions with the representatives of the Union and have agreed to release wage arrears of Rs 267 crore (Rs 2.67 billion) to be paid in 18 months," Chawla said after emerging from the meeting with the Air Corporation Employees Union, which

was spearheading the strike.

"We have called off the strike following assurances by the ministry and the management. We expect to sign the agreement tomorrow morning," ACEU General Secretary J K Badola told reporters after the meeting.

About 15,000 employees of the airline had gone on a flash strike on Tuesday night demanding parity in promotions with Air India and wage arrears.

The strike caused chaos at all major airports across the country as a large number of flights were cancelled or delayed for the past two days.

"The flight operations will come to normal within a few hours," Chawla said.