Wage settlement: HAL employees’ union on hunger strike

There is trouble brewing among employees of the state-owned aviation major, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Alleging gross discrimination in workmen salaries and perks, and a fair settlement, they launched a relay hunger strike here on Tuesday with a threat to intensify it.

Spearheaded by the All India HAL Trade Unions Coordination Committee, the strike’s basis, as the employees put it, is this: While officer wages have seen a 35% rise in gross pay and 110-145% hike in perks, the management has offered workmen a meagre 6% growth.

If the management did not respond with a fair settlement, the committee has threatened they are ready for any level of confrontation. For now, this implies over 18,000 HAL employees spread across nine units in seven states will launch a day’s strike next month. This could get uglier.

In an official statement, the HAL management dubbed as untrue the union’s claim that the company was deliberately delaying wage settlement and offers given to them are meagre. “Nine rounds of discussions have already been held. The latest meeting with the unions was held for two continuous days,” it said.

HAL maintainted there is no justification in the demand to extend the benefits (fitment benefit and allowances) on par or more than executives, when salary revision of executives was effected from January 1, 2017 after the stipulated 10-year period.

Workmen received two wage revisions of five years periodicity between 2007 and 2017. However, the Coordination Committee’s Chief Convenor Suryadevara Chandrashekhar contended that despite these revisions, HAL employees’ pay was less than other public sector undertakings (PSUs).

HAL’s position is as follows: The revision needs to be settled keeping in view the increase derived by the officers from the 2007 scales to the 2017 scales, and by the workmen from the 2007 scales to the 2012 scales and now 2012 to the 2017 scales.