<p>Refuting claims of a section of Air India pilots regarding delayed salary payments, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday said they were getting their dues on a regular basis.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“Their salaries may be a few months late, but for many months they are getting paid regularly. They are being paid salaries regularly for the past five-six months. They are being paid every month now,” Singh told reporters here.<br /><br />A senior ministry officer later claimed that salary backlog till August has been cleared .<br />The minister was replying to questions raised by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), comparing their financial condition with the Kingfisher Airlines employees.<br />Singh also said he had not received any letter on the issue from ICPA, which claimed to have sent a communication to him.<br /><br />Air India has a total of 1,400 pilots of which about 600 owe allegiance to ICPA.<br />The ICPA had sought Singh’s intervention in resolving their grievances regarding pending salaries and allowances, saying that “matters at Air India were not too different from the Kingfisher Airlines.”<br /><br />“Our salaries and flying allowances too are pending for months and the uncertainty regarding the schedule of payments has become unbearable,” ICPA general secretary Captain T Praveen Keerthi said in the letter.<br /><br />“An unsatisfied employee cannot keep up efficiency for long as his financial worries take over his thoughts. A stressed pilot is a potential disaster in waiting,” Keerthi said, adding that an AI engineer had committed suicide last year due to financial worries.</p>
<p>Refuting claims of a section of Air India pilots regarding delayed salary payments, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday said they were getting their dues on a regular basis.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“Their salaries may be a few months late, but for many months they are getting paid regularly. They are being paid salaries regularly for the past five-six months. They are being paid every month now,” Singh told reporters here.<br /><br />A senior ministry officer later claimed that salary backlog till August has been cleared .<br />The minister was replying to questions raised by the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA), comparing their financial condition with the Kingfisher Airlines employees.<br />Singh also said he had not received any letter on the issue from ICPA, which claimed to have sent a communication to him.<br /><br />Air India has a total of 1,400 pilots of which about 600 owe allegiance to ICPA.<br />The ICPA had sought Singh’s intervention in resolving their grievances regarding pending salaries and allowances, saying that “matters at Air India were not too different from the Kingfisher Airlines.”<br /><br />“Our salaries and flying allowances too are pending for months and the uncertainty regarding the schedule of payments has become unbearable,” ICPA general secretary Captain T Praveen Keerthi said in the letter.<br /><br />“An unsatisfied employee cannot keep up efficiency for long as his financial worries take over his thoughts. A stressed pilot is a potential disaster in waiting,” Keerthi said, adding that an AI engineer had committed suicide last year due to financial worries.</p>