Air India defers payment of incentives to staff

Air India has deferred payment of productivity-linked incentives to its employees for July till August 20 as part of cost-cutting measures, even though most of the staff would be getting their salaries on time.

Confirming this, an airline spokesperson said the salaries would be paid on time, but the PLI payment would be delayed till August 20. June salaries and PLI were deferred by a fortnight.

Almost the entire management level cadre of the airline has agreed to forego their July salaries following an appeal by Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav, who recently said deferring salary and incentive payment had become necessary as it was a fight for survival for the airline.

In an appeal to the employees, he had said the aviation industry was going through turbulent times.

But Air India, unlike many other airlines, has not retrenched or laid-off of staff till date, he had said.

Air India, estimating a loss of Rs 7,200 crore (Rs 72 billion) in the last financial year, is targetting reduction in the employee cost to the tune of Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).

Air India's current employee cost annually is about Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion).

The cash-strapped national carrier has also announced a scheme under which an employee could go on 2-3 years leave without pay voluntarily. His job would be protected when he returns to the same grade and pay scale.