Senior Vistara staff to go on leave without pay for 4 days each in May, June

"For the month of May and June 2020, we will continue with compulsory no pay leave (CNPL) for all staff, except for pilots and staff in Level 1A and 1B," Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said to its employee on Tuesday.

New Delhi: Vistara airline on Tuesday asked its senior employees to go on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to four days for the months of May and June.

"For the month of May and June 2020, we will continue with compulsory no pay leave (CNPL) for all staff, except for pilots and staff in Level 1A and 1B, as follows: Staff in Level 4 and 5 to go on 4 days CNPL per month; Staff in Level 2 and 3 to go on 3 days CNPL per month; Staff in Level 1C to go on 1 day CNPL per month," Vistara CEO Leslie Thng said to its employee on Tuesday.

On 27 March, the airline had also introduced compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 1-14 April for the same set of senior employees.

Airlines in India are currently grounded and airport operations have been stopped since 25 March due to the government-imposed lockdown to control the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

Reacting on the leaked mail of the Vistara CEO, its spokesperson said that with the latest lockdown extension until 17 May 2020, our operations continue to be suspended until the date, prolonging the period of no-revenues as well and the company is making every effort to save jobs of more than 4,000 of its people while conserving cash and pursuing to reduce operational expenditures, which includes staff costs.

On 15 April, Thng had announced that senior employees will be going on compulsory leave without pay for up to three days between 15-30 April.

"For the months of May and June 2020, Vistara's senior staff will take compulsory no-pay leave of one to four days in each of the two months, depending on employment grades (four days for senior-most employees).

The monthly base flying allowance for pilots has been reduced to 20 hours for these two months, and adjustments will be made to their monthly remunerations accordingly," said Vistara Spokesperson. Earlier, the base flying allowance was given to pilots for 70 hours per month.

He further added that this decision does not impact 70% of Vistara staff including cabin crew, other frontline staff and junior corporate office employees.

According to the latest estimates by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), airlines in India are likely to suffer a revenue loss of $11.2 billion, leading to 2.9 million jobs at risk as passenger demand will fall by 47 per cent. India currently has a total fleet of 650 planes and due to the nationwide-lockdown almost all of these planes are grounded.