After pilots at Air India Ltd. expressed concerns last week about being overworked and underpaid, the company is facing increasing difficulties as aircraft technicians are preparing to go on strike later this month.
In response to multiple issues affecting their “well-being” and “professional growth,” technicians at AI Engineering Services Ltd., a state-run maintenance, repair, and overhaul company and a former Air India unit, have voted to go on strike on April 23. The All India Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Union sent a letter to the chief executive officer on April 8 detailing these issues.
According to an Air India representative, the situation is being closely watched.
The unrest among aviation workers risks thwarting India’s air travel boom. Pilots and aircraft engineers are crucial to support the country’s rapid fleet expansion after IndiGo, Air India and Akasa placed orders for more than 1,100 aircraft combined.
The strike will further roil India’s aviation industry that saw hundreds of flight cancellations last week after some pilots at Vistara, jointly owned by Air India’s owner Tata Group and Singapore Airlines Ltd., called in sick en masse due to fatigue and pay cuts. The airline is cutting back 25 to 30 flights a day to create a buffer in its rosters to prevent more cancellations.
AI Engineering’s biggest client is Air India.
Its staff are upset over lack of career advancement opportunities because they haven’t been promoted in the past seven years, according to the letter. The management promised a revised pay structure for technicians who have worked for at least two years with the firm but hasn’t followed through. The contractual employees, who form 75% of the company’s workforce, feel discriminated because they have to serve longer notice periods and aren’t given as many benefits as the permanent staff, the letter said.
According to an AI Engineering representative, the management has started talking with the union about finding a solution. Due to an ongoing legal dispute, AI Engineering has adjusted the salaries of every employee, with the exception of technicians. The organization intends to adjust technicians’ wages following the union’s withdrawal of a lawsuit in which it sought parity between contract and permanent workers.
Air India pilots, meanwhile, have expressed similar worries to Vistara employees, claiming that underpayment and overwork are “systemic” problems throughout Tata’s aviation empire.
Aircraft technicians have urged the management to resolve issues to avoid potential disruptions from the strike, the letter said.
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