Air India staff's pay rationalisation: Government may take up issue tomorrow

Government may take up tomorrow the issue of rationalisation of pay and allowances of Air India's pilots, engineers and cabin crew to keep them on par with the global industry standards, official sources said today.

While fixing the salary and allowances of the employees as per the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) guidelines, the Justice D M Dharmadhikari Committee, which went into all HR issues including pay and seniority, had recommended that the pay structure of these licenced staffers should be decided in accordance with the industry standards.

Since these issues fell beyond DPE guidelines, the approval of the cabinet was required, the sources said. Keeping this in mind, the Civil Aviation Ministry had initiated an inter-ministerial discussion on a note on restructuring of the pay structure of Air India's pilots and cabin crew. This discussion is now over, they said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs is likely to tomorrow take up the proposal that is likely to save over Rs 320 crore annually for the ailing carrier, they said.

Air India's annual wage bill stands at about Rs 3,200 crore, of which Rs 1,750 crore is spent on wage and allowances for licenced category employees such as pilots, cabin crew and engineers.

Following the recommendations of the Dharmadhikari panel, the government had abolished Productivity Linked Incentives (PLI) to Air India employees from July last year. PLI formed a major part of the pay structure of pilots, engineers and crew.

The Dharmadhikari Committee had gone into issues relating to pay-scales and career progression to bring about parity and integration among the employees of the two erstwhile state-run airlines - Air India and Indian Airlines.