High Court restrains Air India pilots from continuing strike

All other international flights are operating as a contingency plan has been put in place with the available pilots,the official said.

The pilots,under the banner of Indian Pilots Guild (IPG),are agitating over the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training and matters relating to their career progression.

Justice Reva Khetrapal of the Delhi High Court issued notice to IPG and asked it to reply to a plea of Air India management seeking court’s intervention and also a restraint order against the striking pilots.

“The defendant no 1 (IPG),its members,agents and its office bearers are restrained from illegal strike. The pilots are also restrained from reporting sick,holding dharnas,staging demonstrations or resorting to any other modes of strike in and outside the company’s offices in Delhi and other regional offices,” Justice Khetrapal said in her order.

The judge also said allowing such strike to continue will cause irreparable loss to the company as well as huge inconvenience to the passengers travelling by the national carrier.

The airline management terminated the services of 10 more pilots for refusing to join work,taking the total number of sacked pilots to 20,airline sources told PTI in Mumbai.

On its part,the government said it was ready to talk to the protesting pilots after they resumed duty.

“If you have grievances,we can talk,but discussions and disruptions cannot take place simultaneously. They should withdraw their strike and apologise to the passengers,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told reporters in Delhi.

The minister said the government has “a back-up plan (to deal with strike)… We can downsize… If employees are not interested that Air India should expand,then government is not going to provide money to it.”

Singh said agitating pilots reported sick,even when it was well known that they were not.

“Air India is almost bankrupt. (It) is not able to pay salaries for months,not paid to airport authority and oil marketing companies,” he said,adding the government is trying to revive Air India by infusing Rs 30,000 crore of “public money” over a period of time,but there are strings attached.

He said Justice Dharmadhikari panel report,on integration of workforce of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines including promotions,would be discussed in a month or two and pilots would be actively involved.

Filing an injunction suit against the pilots Delhi High Court,counsel for AI management Lalit Bhasin termed the strike as illegal and said due to the pilots’ strike,the company has been compelled to cancel some of its international flights which has resulted in extreme hardship and inconvenience to the passengers.

Moreover,as a result of the cancellation of flights,Air India is facing huge financial loss of over Rs 10 crore per day,he added.

Accepting the counsel’s submissions,the court said “the court is of the opinion that the company has prima facie made out its case. It is a public utility service (PUS) company. It has been held by the Supreme Court that PUS companies cannot be held to ransom by such types of strike…”

The court has fixed July 13 as the next date of hearing.

Around 200 Air India pilots owing allegiance to Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) had reported sick yesterday resulting in cancellation of at least 13 international flights.

Following flight delays,AI passengers at several airports had heated exchanges with the airline staff,complaining that no information was being provided about their flights and no help rendered to accommodate them on alternate flights.

Air India had yesterday terminated the services of 10 office-bearers of the IPG,which is spearheading the strike,besides de-recognising the union.

The IPG has a strength of about 250 pilots while the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) has over 1,200 membership out of a total of 1,600 pilots. The remaining are mostly executive pilots.

The pilots’ strike issue figured in Parliament with members asking Government to ensure that concrete steps are taken to revive the ailing airline.

Some members said sacking of pilots and de-recognition of their union would not lead to any permanent solution. The AI management should work out a long-term settlement of the issue,they said.