Air India staff salary in 3-4 days, P.M. assures

Air India employees will get their salaries for June and July and part of their performance-linked incentives (PLI) in three to four days.

During a meeting with Trinamul Congress and CPI leaders today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured them of the payments.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said: “In my presence he (Prime Minister) called civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi, who confirmed that salaries had not been paid. He told the Prime MInister that within three to four days, two months’ salary and one month PLI would be paid.”

The leaders had called on Singh to urge him to take swift action.

Air India sources said the national carrier had been paying only 20 per cent of the gross salary in the last few months.

The airline has not paid performance-linked incentives (PLI) since May, while salaries are pending from June.

Dasgupta, who is the general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, said it was a matter of national shame that 31,000 workers of the carrier had not been paid wages for the last two months and PLIs were due over three months.

“I have no complaint against the Prime Minister, but he should act decisively and not merely as a post office. The PM wanted 24 hours from me. So I am going to meet him again at noon tomorrow,” Dasgupta added.

AI pilots who fly domestic get Rs 4 lakh every month, of which as much as 80 per cent, or Rs 3.2 lakh, is PLI. AI has been paying them only the basic salary of Rs 80,000 per month, that is, one-fifth of their total salary.

Pilots who fly international get a fixed gross salary of Rs 5 lakh. This includes basic and other emoluments of Rs 80,000, Rs 3.2 lakh for 80 hours of flying (they get this even if they fly less, unlike the domestic pilots) and a flexible component called the flying allowance which comes to $2,100 (Rs 1 lakh). They are being paid only the fixed salary and the flying allowance, meaning they are getting a third of their total salary at Rs 1.80 lakh per month.

Meanwhile, Namo Narain Meena, minister of state for finance, said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that Air India had been provided with an ad hoc equity of Rs 500 crore in two instalments of Rs 250 crore each this year.

Source : The Telegraph.