Even as Air India pilots’ strike ended on Tuesday, the national carrier’s operations may take another two months to stabilise, pilots who chose to strike said on Wednesday.
?Once the administrative work is complete, we would need to have a medical test, then a ground technical refresher course and finally some training on the flight simulators,? Captain Tauseef Mukadam, joint secretary of the Indian Pilots? Guild (IPG), said. ?The whole process takes anywhere between two weeks to two months so it depends on the management and how quickly they can get us appointments for the medicals and the simulator training.?
On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court ordered pilots to submit letters showing their willingness to rejoin work within 48 hours. The IPG has followed the court order and submitted the letters putting an end to the 58 day strike. Pilots will meet the chief labour commissioner and the Air India management on July 6 to discuss the issues of sacked pilots and recognition of their union. AI had sacked 101 striking pilots and decognised their union. ?The high court has instructed us and the management to sit down and discuss the problems,? Mukadam said. ?We will discuss issues of taking the sacked pilots back and the recognisation of our union amongst other issues.?
?We are positive that our demands on taking back our members and recognition of our union will be met,? he added. ?Issues relating to career progression are long term matters which won?t get resolved in one meeting.?
The outcome of the July 6 meeting will be reported to the Delhi High Court on July 9. “The only reason strike went on for so long was because the management was not willing to speak to us,” he added. “All our meetings were with the chief labour commissioner and the management never joined.”
