HAL employees’ union to launch indefinite strike

Protesting against alleged “discrimination” in workmen salaries and perks, employees of state-owned aviation major, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Saturday decided to launch an indefinite strike from October 14 at all the company’s nine divisions nationwide.

The All India HAL Trade Unions Coordination Committee (AIHALTUCC), which met at HAL’s Lucknow division, also decided unanimously to serve the indefinite strike notice to the management on September 30. An estimated 19,000 employees are attached to the HAL units spread across seven states.

The strike’s basis, as articulated by the Committee’s Chief Convenor Suryadevara Chandrashekhar, is this: While officer wages have seen a 35% rise in gross pay and 110 to 145% hike in perks, the management has offered workmen a meagre 6% growth.

On August 24, a meeting between the Committee and the HAL management had failed to reach a consensus. Later, the chief convenor had proposed to the entire nine divisions’ unions for an indefinite strike to achieve more than 15% fitment and 35% perks with all other demands.

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

The committee had made it clear that the management’s offer of 11% fitment and 21% perks was not acceptable. “It is very unfortunate that even after the AIHALTUCC gave sufficient justification about the demands with live examples during seven rounds of wage revision meetings, the management did not come forward to settle the wage revision,” Chandrashekhar said.

The company’s position was this: “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.