Indian employees to go on mass casual leave on Friday

NEW DELHI: Flights of the Indian are likely to be affected on Friday as 14,000 employees of the carrier have decided to go on mass casual leave demanding payment of their arrears for the last 10 years.

"Repeated pleas for disbursing our arrears for the past 10 years have fallen in deaf ears. So we have decided to go on mass casual leave on May 18," Air Corporation Employees Union General Secretary J K Badola told PTI.

He said the Union has been negotiating with the Indian management since the past three months on the issue of releasing the arrears but neither the senior officials of the airline nor the top brass of the Ministry of Civil Aviation have assured them of the same.

The General Secretary said the Union representatives met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and the top brass of the ministry.

"It is a strange situation. When we talk to the Ministry they say they have no problem, but the Indian management said the Ministry was not in favour of granting them the arrears," Badola pointed out.

He said if the employees of Air India and Pawan Hans have been given their respective dues, then why should they be denied the same.

He said the union would chalk out further course of action if the top brass of the Indian did not disburse their arrears.

The Union represents a sizeable number of employees who are responsible for ground handling operations and manning the assistance counters.