Air India slashes employee allowances by upto 50%
Reeling under the covid-19 pandemic, national carrier Air India Ltd has initiated a pay cut for its employees, which involves trimming down allowances by 20-50 per cent, according to a circular issued by the airline on Wednesday. The national carrier said that the move has been taken as per the directions from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and approval from the Board of Directors of Air lndia Ltd.
Air India said that the rationalisation of allowances will be effective from April 1, 2020 and shall remain in force till further review by the board. According to the circular, while various allowances for pilots will be reduced by 40% percent, other allowances for others like general category officers and staff will be reduced by 30-50%. Cabin crew will have several allowances cut by 20%.
Employees with gross monthly salary of Rs 25,000 have been spared any cut. For pilots, the order says 11 allowances — that comprise majority of the total pay — like flying allowance, special pay, wide body allowance, check allowance and instructor/examiner allowance have been cut by 40%.
"Flying allowance to be paid on actual hours flown by an individual pilot in a month. However, as a special case, all pilots available for flying will be paid fixed 20 hours of flying allowance or actuals, whichever is higher in a month, during Q1 & 2 of financial year 2020-21 on revised flying allowance rate,” the order says.
For cabin crew, the order says check, standby, flying, wide body, domestic layover and quick return allowances will be deducted by 20% and the same will be paid on actual flying hours.
The decision comes a day after the country's largest domestic airline, IndiGo said it will lay off 10% of its workforce to pull through the disruptions caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
