Air India pilots belonging to the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG), which today began an online ballot among its members, plan to serve a strike notice to the airline management on Tuesday.

"We plan to serve a strike notice to the Air India management by Monday or Tuesday. We began a vote on the matter today, which may run for a few days. But the outcome of the vote won't be the sole determinant of the strike plan...it will only decide on the timing of the strike," an IPG source said.

The AI pilots are livid at delays in salaries as also the payment of PLI (productivity-linked incentives), and the management's move to decide on issues relating to their career progression and promotion, which is under the jurisdiction of the justice Dharmadhikari committee that is going into the entire gamut of HR issues relating to the merger of the two state-run carriers. IPG sources said by taking decisions "relating to our career progression, the management is pre-empting the outcome of the Dharmadhikari panel which is yet to submit its report."

Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA) which consists of the former Indian Airlines pilots, flying mostly Airbus aircraft, has no plan to participate in the strike so far, a spokesperson said. The IPG pilots mostly fly the Boeing aircraft. The IPG represents around 300 pilots of the pre-merger Air India, while the ICPA represents around 1,400 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

PTI