Air India pilots' lobby accepts common pay structure

After almost six years, the pilots of the Boeing fleet of Air India have finally agreed to accept the common pay structure as recommended by the Dharmadhikari committee. The Dharmadhikari panel had submitted its report to the government in January 2012, which called for implementing common pay and allowances as per the norms for other public sector enterprises. The agreement reached between Air India and the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) on the issue last month is now awaiting approval from the aviation ministry, an IPG member said today. With this, the merger of the erstwhile Indian Airlines with Air India is almost complete now--a development comes too late for the union as the carrier is divestment-bound now. Confirming the development, a top Air India official told PTI on Wednesday that the "merged seniority" is also being worked out and once that is done, the integration process will be complete. The Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), which represents the Airbus fleet pilots at the state-owned carrier, had long ago accepted the recommendations.<br/>