New Delhi, May 23: Taking the pilots head on as their strike entered the 16th day, Air India today filed a contempt petition against them in the Delhi High Court, with the government again terming their protest illegal and blaming the agitators for not coming to the negotiating table.
“We have again and again said we are willing to talk. But they don't want to,” Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said here.
“They are not willing to talk unconditionally. They have conditions. It is an illegal strike and there are no issues in this strike,” Singh said, adding that Air India management was taking “whatever action they need to take”.
So far, a total of 101 pilots have been sacked by the management for reporting sick and not joining duty.
Hit by the agitation, Air India is operating a curtailed international flight schedule as part of a contingency plan and stopped taking fresh bookings till June 1.
The management today moved a contempt petition in the high hourt on grounds that the pilots had failed to comply with its order restraining them from undertaking the stir.
Filing the petition through counsel Lalit Bhasin, Air India management said despite the court's restraint order, several opportunities were given to the striking pilots to resolve their issues but they failed to settle the matter.
The counsel for AI is likely to mention the matter before Justice Reva Khetrapal, who had passed the restraint order, for the petition to be heard today itself.
On May 9, the Court had restrained over 200 agitating pilots from continuing their “illegal strike”, reporting sick and staging demonstrations, a day after the airlines management sacked 10 pilots and derecognised their union— the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG).
The pilots are agitating over the rescheduling of Boeing 787 Dreamliner training and matters relating to their career progression.
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