Reeling under exodus, AAI raises bond to Rs 5 lakh for newbies

Faced with high attrition in its key areas of air traffic management, a harried Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to make new recruits sign up to Rs 5-lakh bonds to stem exodus of mid-level executives.
According to a circular, the AAI has decided to make it mandatory for the new executives from two crucial areas - air traffic management (ATM) and communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) - to sign a bond of up to Rs 5 lakh while joining the Government organisation which they will have to shell out if they leave the job after one year.
"To discourage the attrition of qualified and trained manpower in two critical disciplines (CNS and ATM), it has been decided that recovery of bond amount on resignation of junior executives will be made with immediate affect," an AAI circular dated July 17 said.

The AAI, which manages 125 airports, has capped a three-year tenure to escape the bond payout.
The authority spends around Rs 8 lakh per air traffic controllers (ATC) and CNS staff in imparting the high-skilled training process.
The measure comes after as many as 200 air traffic controllers reportedly quit their AAI jobs for greener pastures in other sectors in the past 12 months alone. Many of them have reportedly even joined banks and other services industries.

If an executive from these two disciplines quit the job within six months (the training period) of joining the Authority, he will have to pay Rs 5 lakh besides the actual expenditure on his training, the AAI said.

Accordingly, those leaving the job after one year will have to pay Rs 5 lakh. Similarly, those putting in papers within two years of service will have to shell out Rs 4 lakh, while executives leaving the PSU within three years will have to pay back Rs 3 lakh.
Explaining the rationale behind the move, the circular said the decision was taken as "it has been observed with concern that resignation by the newly-recruited executives in ATM and CNS disciplines not only results in undue expenditure on their recruitments and training but also adversely affects the smooth functioning of the organisation."

The bond will be non-transferable to any other PSU/ Government department and vice versa, the circular said.
The AAI has three ATC training centres at Allahabad, Gondia (Maharashtra) and Hyderabad.