Only 2% Air India staff content with job after merger, says survey

Only two per cent of Air India employees are satisfied with their jobs, eight years after its 2007 merger with the Indian Airlines.

According to the first internal survey on employee satisfaction after the merger, about 60 per cent of respondents were unhappy with the union of the two government carriers. The survey was conducted by Air India, with help from EY.

Around 6,600 employees took part. The survey tried to gauge employee opinions on performance evaluation, job recognition, salary package, working conditions and other parameters. Originally, around 21,000 employees were asked to give a feedback on 70 questions.

So, around 30 per cent of the employees participated.

The merger was mired with controversy. Employees from both the airlines had launched a series of protests against it. Several issues such as better salary package, promotion, and equality between the staff of both airlines arose.

Many employees were forced to resign but reinstated later.

The Union government had to intervene at several stages and the battle was dragged to the courts.

The Air India management had also given an assurance to the high court here in 2012 that it will look into the staff demands.

Now, only around 19 per cent of the employees feel their performance was rewarded by the airline, sources said. Overall, on a scale of zero to five, Air India employees' engagement score stood at 2.9.

Airline officials said the level of engagement was not up to the mark and it would take steps to bridge the gap.

"The average score of other companies stand at 4-4.2. But I think 2.9 is not as bad as we had expected it to be, as there was a perception that no one is satisfied with the merger.

"But only 60 per cent of employees said they were dissatisfied.

"We certainly need improvement," said an Air India official, on the condition of anonymity.

The official said in the next two years, the problems will be addressed.

"The merger was executed recently. But I think, in the next two years, this will become a non-issue," said the official.

Sources said EY would give a presentation on the findings to the human resource committee of the organisation and the Air India board will take it forward.