Air India won't pay salaries July 3, workers' strike Friday

New Delhi, July 2

The Air India management Thursday backtracked on its commitment to the employees' union to pay staff salaries by July 3, pushing employees to threaten again that they would go on strike from Friday.

Yielding to pressure from its employees, the cash-strapped national carrier had June 29 said it would pay the June salaries July 3, instead of July 15 as had been decided earlier.

Undeterred by the strike threat, Air India has said it would deal with the situation. “We are working it out. We cannot be held at ransom,” a spokesperson told IANS.

A senior member of the Air Corp Employees' Union (ACEU) - the largest union in the company with over 23,000 members from the 31,000 employees with the carrier - said the carrier's staff would go on strike from Friday.

Air India is in a financial mess having incurred a loss of Rs.4,000 crore last fiscal.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has approached Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a Rs.10,000-crore (about $2-billion) bailout package for the beleaguered carrier.

The prime minister in turn suggested that National Aviation Co of India Ltd (NACIL), which owns Air India, take cost-cutting measures to improve its financial condition.

Last updated on Jul 2^nd, 2009 at 20:00 pm IST--IANS

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