The ICPA stated that the ‘international allowance’ was revised to government rates, which it found to be shocking.
Two pilot unions of the national carrier Air India have urged the Civil Aviation Minister and the airline’s chairman and managing director to withdraw their pay cuts and restore their monthly flight allowance to conform to industry standards. Most other airlines in India have withdrawn their austerity measures. The appeal was in the form of letters and addressed to the Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri and the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, Rajiv Bansal.
In its letter written on 23 March, at the Central Office of the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) in Chennai, it has six offices – attracting the minister’s attention to the pilots for “taking the brunt of unjustified deductions with pay” Can cut wages by about 58% from April 2020, and 55% from October 2020 ”, at a time when Air India has been the only major Indian airline to operate the most repatriation flights through the peak of the novel coronavirus epidemic. Experts in the aviation industry are familiar with the context in which the letter was written that as a breakup, it will work on a 40% deduction on all allowances of salary allowances, which is a small part of the gross package. % To 70%. In addition, instead of the prescribed 70-hour payment which is the industry norm, pilots are being paid on an actual flight basis. Also, a 40% reduction on hourly rate payments is.
The ICPA said that by “snatching fixed salaries”, which is the industry norm, the pilots, and also pilots who were infected with the COVID-19 virus, were affected. It stated that despite being available for flight it was unfair to deny pilots their monthly flight allowance in general, yet their services were not used for various reasons. In this way, the strength of an ICPA pilot of about 1,000 crew would have affected about 350 pilots. Apart from them, there were about 250 pilots who could not fly due to delays in license renewal by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and airport entry pass renewal.
The ICPA stated that the ‘international level allowance’ was revised to government rates, which was found to be very poor, as Air India management followed the industry practices and standards for other allowances. Pilots are paid $ 200 (approx. 14,490) for the first 36 hours and $ 6 (approx. 435) per hour thereafter. It has now been changed to reflect government guidelines that vary from country to country. The union urged the minister to ensure that this allowance was reinstated or in this case treated pilots with other public sector units, when any pay cuts that came into force from March 2020 after the epidemic Was considered.
The ICPA reported that all private airlines in India had scaled back austerity measures. The expert said in the case of Vistara, the effective cut on gross was less than 17%, 20% in Air Asia, 28% in IndiGo, while SpiceJet paid its crew according to their actual flight hours.
In the case of Air India, a pay cut was implemented for pilots in its other airline groups – its low-cost subsidiary, Air India Express which employs about 320 pilots and its regional airline subsidiary Alliance Air, with around 320 pilots. . Both these airlines have foreign national pilots along with their rolls. They have also had pay cuts but not to the extent of their Indian counterparts. These two airlines do not have a separate consortium, but are ICPA members.
In another letter, also on 23 March, another Air India Pilot Union, Indian Pilot Guild, based in Mumbai, highlighted the important role played by the airline under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ repatriation flight schedule. Citing figures from the Ministry of Civil Aviation of 18 March, it said that Air India has flown 27,50,385 passengers, which is 15,92,072 passengers (inbound) and 11,58,313 passengers (outbound).
IPG, which represents 367 pilots – 342 general members and 25 associate members – and operates long-haul flights of Air India, said that with the increase in domestic and international passenger load factors, the airline’s operations division Now introduced a revised policy that pre-flight COVID-19 to enable better crew access with testing. The aviation expert said that the IPG considered it a cause for concern.
Additionally, all leave for pilots alone was being canceled or discontinued. The IPG said it only stood out for the reason that the pay was reinstated, particularly with aircraft usage leading to the number of hours in operation before the epidemic.
The IPG, urging the termination of its letter, said that the pay cut applicable from April 1, 2020, would be retroactively withdrawn from January 1, 2021. Like the ICPA, the union has also been referred to a pay cut. Implemented by other Indian airlines from January this year and conforms to industry standards.
Both papers have focused on the strong need for industrial harmony and the importance of restoring employee morale, particularly for airline sales. The IPG letter states, “With this rigid style of management on the eve of privatization, there is no vested interest in dealing with pilots consistently, so one cannot help but wonder.”
All pilots i.e. under ICPA and IPG, Flies more than 160 aircraft operated by Air India and its subsidiaries.
In a separate development, Shiv Sena member, Gajanan Kirtikar, wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Wednesday that, among other things, pay cuts for Air India employees were done in a manner in the context of cost-cutting measures. In which “no other government department or company” had so far.
On Saturday, March 27, the Minister of Civil Aviation had said that the airline was running a loss of ₹ 20 crore every day, with a cumulative debt of ₹ 60,000 crore. He said that the government wanted to complete 100% of the airline’s sales by May or June this year.
Neither the Ministry of Civil Aviation nor the CMD of Air India responded HinduEmail for his comments on this issue.
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