Two March 23rd letters from Indian Flag bearer - Air India's pilot unions have urged the Minister of Civil Aviation and the carriers’s chairman and MD to roll back the reductions in their salary and reinstate their monthly flying allowance sas per the industry standards.
The letters were addressed to the Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, and Rajiv Bansal, the Chairman and MD of Air India, from chennai based Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) & Mumbai based IPG (Indian Pilots Guild).
ICPA says, Most other carriers in India have rolled back their austerity measures, while they have to bear the “brunt of unjust pay cuts with unilateral reductions to wages of approximately 58% from April 2020, and 55% from October 2020”, at a time when Air India had been the only major Indian airline to operate the most number of repatriation flights through the peak of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The drastic compensation reduction includes a 40% cut on all allowances excluding salary, and instead of the fixed 70 Flying hours payment, the pilots are being paid based on the actual flying hours. Hourly rate payment has also taken a hit of 40% .
All private airlines in India have rolled back the wage austerity measures, as highlighted by ICPA. For private players like Indigo, cut was 28% , for Vistara, the cut on gross was less than 17%, in Air Asia 20%, and SpiceJet paid its pilots based on the actual flying hours.
Another Pilot association IPG (Indian Pilots Guild), highlighted the key role Air India had played under the repatriation flight schedules. They also Cited the Civil Aviation Ministry data of March 18th, that says, Air India had flown 27,50,385 passengers, both inbound and outbound.
IPG says, they are concerned with the wage restoration, especially with aircraft utilisation is getting better , while they said to have been affected by cancelled or curtailed leave.
N.B. Attached picture for representation only.
