Air India panel to begin meetings with unions next week

The Air India panel, which is a sub-committee of the Air India Board, will submit its recommendations to the board within two months.

A newly-formed official committee to look into the problems of Air India employees would begin meetings with at least 14 unions representing a cross-section of staffers, including pilots, from next week.

The panel was set up on Tuesday following which the executive pilots withdrew their five-day long agitation against slashing of their productivity-linked incentive (PLI) and flying allowance by half.

Besides Air India chief managing director Arvind Jadhav, the committee comprises civil aviation ministry's joint secretary and financial advisor EK Bharat Bhushan and joint secretary Prashant Shukul.

The senior pilots had called off their stir on Tuesday after Jadhav informed them that the decision to cut PLI and flying allowance had been kept in abeyance till the committee heard the employees and examined all related issues in the context of the turnaround plan for the airline.

"The committee plans to meet all the trade unions in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) to discuss the turnaround plan and seek their suggestions on the issue," they said.