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“Raju Vernekar
vernekar.raj@gmail.com
In a move aimed reducing number of its employees, the board of Air India (AI) has allowed the airline’s Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) to recommend that “non-performing” staff members be compulsorily sent on leave without pay (LWP) for a period up to five years.
Employees will be assessed by a board in the following categories: suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy.
Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal can now send employees on leave without pay “”for six months or for a period of two years extendable up to five years,”” an official order said on Tuesday.The departmental heads in the headquarter as well as regional directors are required to assess each employee, on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised. Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD, the order said.
Both the regional directors and headquarter departmental heads have been asked to submit the list of to be sent on compulsory LWP by 15 August, 2020. The names will be approved by CMD. During the LWP, if any employee takes employment in India or abroad, he/she will have to obtain prior approval of the AI. If the facts are suppressed, the employees’ services can be terminated as per existing service regulations.AI has 13,000 permanent employees with monthly wage bill of Rs 230 crore. The airline has been reportedly delaying payment of flying allowance to crew members due to a severe financial crunch, that has been worsened by travel restrictions due to corona virus.
Nitin Mhatre, President of the Air India Employees’ Union said that the move is anti-labour and the union will certainly oppose such move. The decision is at draft stage and it is to be seen how Air India management implements it.
India resumed domestic passenger flights from 25 May after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. However, the airlines have been allowed to operate only a maximum of 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights. Occupancy rate in Indian domestic flights has been around 50-60 per cent since 25 May. Besides the International passenger flights suspended since 23 March, remain banned till 31 July, as per DGCA’s recent circular.
Air India’s accumulated losses in the past decade stood at about Rs.69,575.64 crore. Subsequently the losses were stated to be slashed down to Rs 23,286 crore. The remaining liabilities are to be adjusted to ensure that there are assets against them. As part of disinvestment, the bids were invited in March, for a 100% stake in Air India. However the bid process was deferred due to the pandemic. Apart from Air India, also on sale are Air India Express and a 50% stake in ground-handling company Air India Singapore Airport Terminal Services.
The aviation sector has been badly hit due to travel restrictions in India and other countries amid the pandemic and most of the airlines in India have taken up cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts and laying off employees. “Go Air” has kept a majority of its employees on LWP since April. All most all airlines, except “IndiGo”, which has some cash reserve, are struggling to survive.
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