Turning the heat on agitating pilots on the SARS issue, Air-India today de-recognised the Indian Pilots Guild with immediate effect, suspended 18 more pilots for refusing to fly, and filed a caveat with Mumbai and Delhi high courts on the suspension issue.

Air-India public relations director Jitendra Bhargava told reporters here that a letter has been sent de-recognising the IPG which will take away the collective bargaining right of the pilot's trade union body with the management.

Explaining the reasons for such a strong measure, he accused IPG of violating an agreement for observing constitutional means and not resorting to agitation or concerted action which might disrupt the airline's functioning.

Bhargava said directives issued by IPG to its members on SARS related issues and on flights to Kuwait was nothing but a "concerted action with common understanding not to operate flights, which amounted to illegal strike."

This is the second time that the airline has de-recognised a union, the earlier one being in 1970s when the A-I Employees Union faced similar action.

With the suspension of 18 pilots on Tuesday, the total number of suspensions since April 26 has gone up to 45 of whom 12 have been chargesheeted.

The management has also issued show cause notices to 55 pilots, Bhargava said.

Bhargava said talks between A-I management and IPG before the regional labour commissioner Shiv Kumar on Tuesday failed to bring about an amicable settlement. Talks might now shift to Delhi before the chief labour commissioner S K Mukhopadhyay, he added.

Both the management and IPG stuck to their stand with Air-India refusing to certify that accompanying crew had not travelled to SARS affected region during the last 10 days as demanded by the pilots.

A-I also was not willing to go for voluntary arbitration which would amount to a status quo position, A-I officials said.

A-I also filed a caveat with the Mumbai and Delhi high courts on Monday pleading that the airline may be heard in the matter before entertaining the IPG's petition against suspension of pilots.

Bhargava said there was no labour unrest since May 1996 and as the competition is very high now "we have been forced to resort to such a move."

He said in view of some flights being cancelled with the introduction of a contingency plan, passengers are being accommodated on Indian Airlines services, especially to the Gulf destinations.