Ground handlers' stir hit Air India flights at Mumbai airport

MUMBAI: Two Air India flights were affected today after a section of ground-handling workers did not report to duty at the international airport in the protest against delay in salary disbursal, sources said.

"Around 100-odd contract workers did not report to duty today to protest against the delay in disbursement of salary which has not been paid for the past two months," Airline sources told PTI here.

Some contract workers are currently staging a dharna at the airport, they said.

Consequently, two international flights, namely Mumbai-Delhi-Shanghai and Mumbai-Cairo, were delayed by about 45 minutes, the sources said.

The agitators comprise the personnel deployed on the second counter at the airport.

A meeting held yesterday between some representatives of the workers, who do not have a formal union, and the airline management on the issue did not yield any results, they said.

Air India pilots had last month threatened to go on strike in the protest against delay in salary disbursal, but did not go ahead with their plan following an assurance from the top management that their pending dues would be cleared by June.