DOES Indian Airlines (IA) succumb easily to blackmail? That is what thousands of passengers have been asking each other waiting at numerous airports throughout the country, hoping for the flights to come in and then take off—a journey that has become a nightmare ever since the all-India Engineers' Association declared an unofficial go-slow demanding wage increases to their already-fattened salary structure.
Last week, more than 150 IA flights were disrupted, leading to inordinate delays stretching upto 10 hours. As a result, passengers had to jump onto private airliners, whose waiting lists steadily lengthened.
What is the source of the current ire of the 1,000-odd engineers, who, in May 1994, signed an interim settlement with the IA management which had laid down the broad parameters for a final productivity-linked wage agreement? Simple. They want more money and no links with productivity, thank you, like the agreement signed between the IA management and the all-powerful commercial pilots' association in January this year.
The basis of the current dispute goes back to May 1994, when IA engineers, with the help of a massive go-slow programme, demanding wage parity with Air-India engineers had forced the IA management on its knees. The management and engineers signed an interim settlement, laying down the foundation of a productivity-linked scheme. It was agreed that details would be worked out later.
But before that could be done, members of the Engineers' Association met the IA Managing Director P.C. Sen and arrived at an 'agreement' about the amount to be paid to senior personnel of the association—and that too with restrospective effect, something extremely unusual for productivity-linked increases. The engineers then promised to get back with the final settlement. According to management sources, however, the engineers met Chairman Russi Mody, who promised them hefty salary hikes touching up to Rs 11,000, without getting into any kind of productivity-linked agreement.
The move seems to have taken the IA management by surprise. At its board meeting in November 1995, the management, along with union representatives, had decided to form a joint consultative committee and discuss "all matters concerning the affairs of the company barringsuch matters which fall within the purview of collective bargaining". They had also agreed that payments would be based on productivity.
The engineers, obviously, want the Russi Mody formula. The management, of course, accuses the engineers of reneging on their promise. If the Mody formula is accepted, the extra outflow for engineers would be around Rs 10 crore and since this would be followed by similar demands from other employees, the total outgo could be in the region of a whopping Rs 75 crore. "Given the present financial condition of the company, where it is having to borrow to exist, and while large sums of money remain unpaid to the International Airports Authority of India (IAAI) and oil companies, such out-flows are only possible, if they are matched by guaranteed inflows," points out a special paper prepared by IA.
The airlines should indeed be worried. In January this year, it signed an agreement with the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA), giving the fliers a lavish new year gift. The terms of that gift. The terms of that agreement, described even by ICPA President Captain V.K. Bhalla as a 'landmark', says payment to pilots would be made on an hourly flying rate, irrespective of the type of aircraft and destination. A commander will earn Rs 1.25 lakh a month instead of Rs 1 lakh, while a co-pilot will get Rs 64,000 against Rs 33,000 a month.
The airlines' top brass privately admit that even that is too much for the airlines, which has accumulated losses of Rs 920 crore between 1989 and 1995. But the demands of the pilots, like the engineers, have to be met because more than 150 of them have left the airlines since 1992 to join private airliners.
Engineer representatives, however, claim there is no agitation at all. Says Sanjay Harure, a representative: "There is no go-slow as far as we are concerned." So what about the weary air commuters? Ask the management, he quips. The managing director is hopeful of a turnaround by the end of this year. But with a total of eight militant unions in the airlines, it would be a herculean task to keep all of them happy. Because, invariably, one agreement leads to another agitation.
