Air India to pay August salaries on time

Jadhav assures review of lower-level employees’ PLI, says union member

In an effort to placate the unions, the management of National Aviation Company Ltd (Nacil), which runs state-owned airline Air India, has decided to pay employees their August salaries on time.

The airline's employees were not paid their July salary, said a union member, and senior staff opted not to take their salary for the same month.

Nacil Chairman and MD (CMD) Arvind Jadhav was meeting the 14 unions representing 32,000 employees in Delhi and nothing was achieved till late night. A union member said the CMD has assured that he will review the productivity-linked incentive (PLI) of lower-level employees. In a meeting last Monday, Jadhav had assured that lower-level employees’ PLI would not be impacted, but later in a meeting on Thursday, he came out with a proposal of an across-the-board PLI cut, the union member added.

“We have asked the airline management to sign a unified wage agreement with Air India employees, which should be done to complete the merger. It is only after this that we will discuss any further,” said a senior representative of Indian Commercial Pilots Association.

Earlier, there were two different agreements with Air India and Indian Airlines, and Indian Airlines employees’ overall package is still around 30 per cent less than their Air India counterpart.

“We have not accepted any proposal of a cut in PLI from the management and the meeting is still on,” said a senior representative of Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU).

Some of the airline's 14 unions also went on a relay hunger strike across the country today to protest against the management's decision to cut the PLI scheme. Other unions are considering legal action against the management for breaking the earlier wage agreements.

The airline, which incurred losses of Rs 5,000 crore in 2008-09, has a wage bill of around Rs 3,100 crore. PLI accounts for 40 per cent of this amount. Wages and salaries form the largest component of airlines’ expenditure, after aviation turbine fuel.

Dinakar Shetty, president of Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU), which claims to be one of the airline's largest unions, said, "The PLI cut is against the wage settlement agreement that we have signed. It has no legal justification and we will oppose it."

Responding to reports of a hunger strike by some employees and resulting media queries on flight operations, Air India spokesman Jitender Bhargava said all flights were on schedule and the management would ensure that passengers are not inconvenienced.