AI may reduce retirement age

New Delhi: Crisis-ridden Air India is learnt to be toying with the idea of reducing retirement age for its staffers from the current 58 to 55, which can send home over 4,000 of its total workforce of 31,000 employees. This proposal is likely to be among the most radical moves in the revival plan that the airline is preparing for submitting to the aviation ministry on Wednesday.
But sources said any such proposal from AI is unlikely to be cleared by the government. "There are several other methods to cut flab and we are unlikely to clear this move, if proposed by AI," a source said. The airline spokesperson could not be contacted despite many attempts.
The merged AI-IA entity, NACIL, has to submit its cost-cutting and revival plan to the aviation ministry on Wednesday. The ministry will then fine-tune the same and forward it to the committee of secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary that will meet on Saturday to take a final view on the plan, including AI's demand for equity-cum-loan infusion. With 31,000 employees and 20,000 people doing outsourced jobs at an annual wage bill of Rs 3,100 crore, AI is looking to cut flab. The airline's accumulated losses are Rs 7,200 crore.
21/07/09 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: NACIL Jul 2009