Aircraft technicians continue strike in Mumbai

The aircraft technicians of Air India Engineering Services Ltd (AIESL), a government-owned company, continued their strike at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Friday.

These technicians are employed on a fixed-term contract with the AIESL.

The demands of these employees include salary revision, proper career progression, the inclusion of Dearness Allowance (DA), implementation of FTE Rules as per the Gazette of India dated March 16, 2018.

Chand Pratab Asthana, one of the aircraft technicians said while talking to ANI, "We should be given the salary given to a permanent employee if we both are doing the same work. We also want the inclusion of DA. It is our right. Also, there is no career progression here. We are stuck as 'Aircraft technicians' here, putting our lives on the line, working no matter what. There was a casualty in 2016. With a salary of 25,000, when petrol prices are rising, we are expected to groom ourselves well and come here for work. Proper career progression and salary hike must be given to us. We do not get any facilities here. It is told to us that the company is in crisis, but why torture is being done only to us?"

Asthana said that the strike is going on since March 15.

"We gave a strike notice, invited for talks, went to the Labour Commission. But the management is not listening. Even the Labour Commission agreed with us, management offered to talk. First, the talks did not bear any fruit. Later when we sent a strike notice, technicians were terminated. We urge the management to take back the termination. We want a written answer and will continue our strike till our demands are met," he added.

( With inputs from ANI )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor