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Air India grants employees leave without pay
By siliconindia
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Friday, 17 October 2008, 23:28 IST
New Delhi: The Downturn in the aviation industry has even made State owned carrier Air India seek ways to reduce its unwieldy wage bill. Air India has decided to revive a six year old proposal to offer employees leave without pay for three to five years. An Air India official said, "When they come back their jobs will be waiting for them." Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel was categorical when he said that Air India was not planning job cuts.
Air India will post around Rs 2000 crore as losses this fiscal as its fuel bill went up by around 65 percent this year. Wage bills comprise the second largest segment of the total operating costs of any airline. Air India's leave without pay scheme has come a day after Jet Airways announced not offering jobs to 1900 probationers.
It would take upto six weeks before the Air India's Board implements its new scheme. A spokes person of Air India said, "We are just reviving an old scheme." A total of 15,000 employees are eligible for the scheme from the total of 34,000 employees. This at a time when Air India merged with Indian airlines to form Indian.
Employees from non operational areas will come under the voluntary scheme. A proposal would be brought before the company's board within this quarter.