Air India pay cut to have devastating effect, say pilots

Air India’s senior pilots have expressed discontent over the differences in pay cuts announced by the national carrier for pilots and senior management. They claim that the salaries of top AI officials have been reduced by a smaller percentage, as compared to their own.

New Delhi: At least 60 Air India pilots have tested positive for coronavirus and the government's decision for the drastic pay cut will be a devastating effect on their family members, the airline pilots said in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday.

"It was no easy task to instil some amount of confidence in our pilots and crew, by putting together a system so that they feel relatively safe while risking their personal and family safety whilst undertaking this extraordinary mission (Vande Bharat Mission)," said the executive pilots of Air India in a letter to Puri.

"...there is an open heavy price to pay for those on the frontline. As of date, at least 60 plus pilots have been tested COVID positive. Furthermore, unlike other wars, the enemy has accompanied the warriors home to affect their family members with devastating effect," read the letter.

The pilots association requested the Civil Aviation Minister to revisit and rescind the decision on pay cuts and compulsory leave without pay and said that recent decisions have resulted in 70-75% cut in monthly emoluments for pilots.

"Our association is also extremely concerned about the potentially disastrous psychological impact that the massive forced pay cuts and compulsory leave without pay scheme, may create on some employees," the pilots added.

More than 7,73,000 Indians have returned from across the world under Vande Bharat Mission.

Notably, Air India had on Thursday said that it has started the process of identifying employees based on various factors like efficiency, health, and redundancy who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years.

However, justifying Air India's decision to send employees only without pay for up to 5 years, he had said, "Equity infusion of Rs 500-600 crore every year is not a sustainable thing to run an airline now. Everybody has to cut costs. That is what is happening."

The national carrier Air India's net loss in 2018-19 is provisionally estimated to be Rs 8,556.35 crore.

The government had in January invited preliminary bids to divest its entire stake in Air India and the airline's subsidiary Air India Express along with its joint venture Air India SATS Airports Services Private Limited.

But, due to coronavirus pandemic, the government had on June 27 extended the deadline to submit bid documents for Air India by two months to 31 August.