Air India-union talks fail to make headway

New Delhi: The deadlock between the management of the troubled state-owned airline Air India and various employee unions over the proposed cut in productivity-linked incentives (PLIs) continued, as a marathon meeting on Thursday failed to reach an agreement. The union representatives maintained that they would co-operate with the management to tide over the financial crisis, but would not take a cut in salaries.
“Our salaries and incentives have not been revised since 2006. We are already getting lower salaries, compared with our counterparts in erstwhile Air India,” said a representative of the Indian Airlines’ Technicians Association (IATA), after the crucial meeting with the committee set up to look into the proposed cost-cutting exercise.
Air India, which is currently working on a turnaround plan, has targeted to save Rs 400 crore, far lower than Rs 600 crore proposed earlier on account of manpower and wage rationalisation. Air India’s annual wage bill for over 31,000 employees stands at around Rs 3,000 crore, of which Rs 1,450 crore is on account of PLI.
In a bid to reduce operational costs, Air India had last month proposed a 25-50% cut in PLI of 7,000 senior level employees. The airline, however, failed to implement the proposed cut, as it faced strong resistance from executive pilots who reported sick en masse to protest against the move.
16/10/09 Economic Times

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Categories: NACIL Oct 2009