Report by Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC) correspondent
Workers of the state-owned Air India Engineering Services Ltd. (AIESL) which includes service engineers and other support staff announced on May 6 that they will go on strike from May 24, seeking immediate implementation of their long-pending revised salary payments. AIESL provides engineering services — base and line maintenance as well as overhaul of landing gear, avionics accessories and components – to mainly Air India as well as a few other airlines. It is under the AI Assets Holding Ltd. after the sale of Air India to the Tatas in 2022.
The strike is being organised by a forum representing aircraft service engineers, and allied cadre unions of permanent employees of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines, who were transferred to AIESL.
The Aviation Industry Employees’ Guild, All India Service Engineers’ Association, Air Corporation Employees’ Union, and Indian Aircraft Technicians’ Associations had signed a wage revision agreement with the AIESL management on 3rd January this year. It is to be noted that this wage revision was long pending since 2007 and it has taken 15 years for the management to revise the salaries of these workers. However even after signing the agreement it has not been implemented for the last 3 months. This has left the workers with no option but to go on strike.
AIESL employs more than 5,000 staff out of which 1500 are hired on fixed term employment or contract basis. The salaries of the fixed term employment staff are merely a quarter of those who are doing the same job but are permanent staff. The contract workers have formed their own union and had also given a strike notice for April 23rd demanding wage revision on par with the permanent employees for doing the same kind of work.
However to divide the permanent and contract workers, the management agreed for salary revision of the contract workers including payment of arrears whereas they are withholding the revision of the salaries of the permanent employees as well as their arrears.
The break-up of Air India into different companies, followed by privatisation has affected the wages and working conditions of all workers of erstwhile Air India, including those working in companies which are still under government ownership. The problems faced by workers of AIESL are an example of this. Like in other Public Sector Undertakings, the management of AIESL is resorting to hiring contract labour, paying these workers a pittance, in order to drive down the wages of all the workers. The workers of AIESL need to unite and while fighting for their rights, they need to fight for the regularisation of the contract workers also.