Irate Pawan Hans pilots to continue their agitation

MUMBAI, Jan 1: Pawan Hans pilots who were supposed to call off their 33-day strike on December 30, ’98 have decided to continue with their agitation allegedly because the management did not stick to its side of the bargain. The Pawan Hans Pilots Guild is demanding the suspension of two senior officials accused of abetting a gherao of pilots by general employees on November 27. It also accused representatives of Pawan Hans general employees trying to disrupt the accord.

Said two Guild officials, deputy general manager (operations) P S Sood and DGM (personnel) A K Shrivastava were respectively supposed to be grounded and transferred to Delhi as a pre-condition to resuming operations. “Since this has not been carried out we have decided to continue the strike,” a spokesman of the Guild said. Pawan Hans pilots who were all set to resume duty accused the management of being swayed by the general employees union.

“We fully sympathise with the plight of ONGC workers who have been affected by the strike, but we expect the management to give us assurances in writing,” the PHPG spokesman said.

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Senior Pawan Hans officials including General Manager K Kaushik and V K Dheer could not be contacted as they were away at meetings, according to their office.

As per the draft agreement prepared by the PHPG and the management in Delhi both parties decided to take care of the security considerations of the pilots even as arbitration proceedings to examine the pilots’ flight and duty time limitations and their pay structure were slated to resume from the new year.