Pawan Hans staff to get equal wages

MUMBAI, OCT 8: In what is being termed as a rare interim relief, a division bench of Justice M B Ghodeswar and Justice S Radhakrishnan to...

MUMBAI, OCT 8: In what is being termed as a rare interim relief, a division bench of Justice M B Ghodeswar and Justice S Radhakrishnan today granted equal pay8217; relief to around 24 junior technicians on contract with Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. According to this order, technicians who have been with the company since 1997 and at present earn around Rs 6,000 will receive equal pay as their regular8217; counterparts, that will double their salaries.

The directions were given on a petition filed by one of the technicians, P M Prabhakaran, and 23 others who had answered an advertisement for junior technicians published by the company in 1996 and were appointed by 1997. However, they were horrorfied to learn that they had been taken on a six-month contract, at a salary of Rs 4,000 per month. Every six months to a year, their appointments were renewed without any break in service.

The central government has a 51 per cent stake in the company while the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has the remaining 49 per cent.

The matter was hotly argued in court, with senior counsel K K Singhvi along with advocate Susheel Mahadeshwar contending that the advertisement had stated that the petitioners would be taken on permanent duty with a salary of around Rs 10,300. Some of the other applicants who had answered the same advertisement had been appointed as permanent employees in posts like flight coordinator, Hindi translators and stenographers.

They also argued that technicians appointed in 1995 after ansewring an advertisement then had been appointed as permanent employees and earned Rs 12,000 today. Their clients8217; salaries had climbed to Rs 6,000 only while the work was no different. They also pointed out that the salary of a helper in Pawan Hans was around Rs 9,000.

While the petitioners have sought regularisation of services, they have also sought parity in salaries with the other technicians as interim relief.