Unlike Other Airlines, Air India to Not Lay Off Any Employee, Justifies Allowance Cut

In a series of tweets today, Air India justified its decision of reducing staff allowance by upto 50 percent. Air India, the national air carrier stated that the recent decisions of the Air India Board regarding rationalization of staff cost were done so that no employee is asked to leave the job.

Air India also said that unlike other carriers which have laid off large number of their employees, no employee of Air India will be laid off.

Air India recently announced that they will be cutting employee allowances by 20 per cent to 50 per cent. The revised allowances, as per the company, will be effective from April 1, 2020. The order also states that flying allowances are to be paid to pilots as per the actual flying hours clocked in a month.

However, the airline said there has been no reduction in the Basic pay, DA and HRA of any category of employees. "The rationalization of allowances had to be implemented on account of the difficult financial condition of the airline that were exacerbated by COVID-19", Air India said.

Air India will review the current allowance cuts as per the flying situation. "Flying crew will be paid as per the actual number of hours flown. As domestic and international operations expand to reach pre-COVID levels and the financial position of Air India improves, the rationalization of allowances will be reviewed" it added.

Pilot unions — Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association and Indian Pilots’ Guild — have alleged that the airline’s management has proposed a 60 per cent pay cut for pilots on a retrospective basis while suggesting a meagre 3.5-4 per cent cut in salary of the top management. The unions have also alleged that pilots have not been paid 70 per cent of their pay since April 2020.

With Inputs from PTI