New Delhi, March 7: The government is trying to stave off a strike proposed by a section of Air India pilots from March 9.

Civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi today met members of the Air India pilots’ union to understand the discord between the management and the workers, said officials.

In a letter to the aviation minister, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) had sought a meeting with Ravi to explain how Air India chairman Arvind Jadhav was jeopardising the airline’s future by lowering the morale of employees to an all-time low, “leaving us with no other option but to go on strike”.

The ICPA had sent a notice to Jadhav stating that the pilots would strike work indefinitely from March 9, as the management had failed to ensure pay parity and better working conditions.

The association has claimed that there are differences in salaries and working conditions of pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India. It feels the management has violated an agreement to implement the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations.

The ICPA is also demanding payment of arrears since the date of the merger between Air India and Indian Airlines in 2007. The union represents some 800 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

Ravi has set up a committee to harmonise the wages of the merged airline. Air India faces an annual wage bill of around Rs 3,000 crore. The airline has a total debt of about Rs 50,000 crore and accumulated losses of over Rs 13,000 crore.

Jadhav, in an open letter to the employees, requested them not to go on strike at a time the company was facing financial problems and an on-going evacuation operation in Libya.

The national carrier has been slipping deeper into the red since the two entities merged.

The Maharaja has lost Rs 3,450.6 crore during the first half of 2011, according to the aviation ministry. The losses in 2008, 2009 and 2010 have been Rs 2,226.2 crore, Rs 5,548.3 crore and Rs 5,552.4 crore, respectively.

Last year, the central government had infused Rs 2,000 crore of fresh equity in the flag-carrier in instalments of Rs 800 crore and Rs 1,200 crore.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his 2011-12 budget, had said: “As a part of the process for financial restructuring of National Aviation Company of India Limited, an amount of Rs 1,200 crore has been provided.”