Fed up with the uncertainty over their own future tagged with the fate of Air India, airline employees are in the process to deciding to either take the NCLT route to recover their dues or declare a general strike to put pressure on the Government from privatising the national carrier. The two options were arrived after all the recognised AI unions and other employee bodies met in Mumbai.

However, a final course of action will be decided after further discussion and is expected soon. If the strike option is chosen, then it will be initiated from January 8, 2020.

The decision to consider either the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) route or the strike comes days after the airline's pilots and engineers demanded immediate payment of their dues.

"We all met today and have decided that the privatisation exercise should cease immediately and some clarity be provided first," a senior office bearer of engineers' union told IANS from Mumbai.

"The country can not afford to loose the national carrier which provides affordable travel options to passengers. It is also an engine of economic growth during the time of slowdown."

On Monday, the airline's pilot union had requested the Centre to allow them to quit the passenger carrier without serving their notice periods.

"We are in a state of distress," a senior officer office-bearer of the pilots union, the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association (ICPA), told IANS.

"If the government wants to close down the airline, then they should say so and relieve us as soon as possible, so that we can find alternate employment. We also want that our notice period should also be waived-off." On Monday, the ICPA in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said: "It is unfair for the Government of India to keep us bonded with the notice period while we are not being paid on time and our dues are not cleared."