Mumbai: Air India on said it has taken adequate steps to ensure smooth operations across airports on Friday in view of the proposed two-hour agitation by a section of its employees to protest delay in payment of salaries.
"Air India is taking requisite steps at airports to ensure that passengers do not face any inconvenience if and when the section of employees walk out between 1300 hours and 1500 hours today," Air India spokesperson told PTI.
Efforts to ensure normalcy at the airport have also been taken, he said.
A section of Air India employee unions had on Thursday announced a two-hour walkout, effective from 1300 hours to 1500 hours, to protest delay in payment of salaries.
Aviation Industry Employees Guild (AIEG) and Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) have also threatened to boycott today's turn-around committee meeting between the management and the unions.
In June-end, the airline's management had agreed to pay salaries to its lower grade employees by July 3.
Meanwhile, the airline management has reiterated that the wages and allowances of the Air India employees will be deducted if they go on strike.
Meanwhile, IANS reports that the Air India management on 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 on June 29 said it would pay the June salaries on 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 Rs10,000-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.
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