Jet effect: AI says no job cuts, mulls leave for 15,000
State-owned Air India on Thursday said it was open to letting as many as 15,000 workers go on leave without pay for 3-5 years, but it would be voluntary action on the employees part.
"We are planning to offer leave without pay for three to five years. We can consider it for about 15,000 employees," Air India CMD Raghu Menon told a news agency.
He said those who take up the offer to go on leave would be taken back, if they so desire, at the same seniority and last drawn pay.
An official of National Aviation Company of India Ltd, the holding company of Air India, clarified that this was not tantamount to retrenchment as was being done by private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.
Jet laid off 1,900 jobs as it tries to ward off the impact of the financial crisis in the aviation sector.
The official said that a proposal for leave without pay could be brought before the company's Board soon.
The government on Wednesday had ruled out any job cuts in Air India, which employs nearly 25,000 people, with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel saying that there were no plans to prune staff strength.
"No...Air India is not going to have any job cuts. Certainly it (the aviation crisis) will affect the growth plans, it will affect the future employment opportunities which would have come the way of Air India in case the aviation industry was in a much better financial health," Patel said.
"But as of now I do not have the luxury to say beyond the fact that those who are working for the Air India shall continue to do so and we shall not have any issue of people being laid off," he said.
State-owned Air India on Thursday said it was open to letting as many as 15,000 workers go on leave without pay for 3-5 years, but it would be voluntary action on the employees part.
"We are planning to offer leave without pay for three to five years. We can consider it for about 15,000 employees," Air India CMD Raghu Menon told a news agency.
He said those who take up the offer to go on leave would be taken back, if they so desire, at the same seniority and last drawn pay.
An official of National Aviation Company of India Ltd, the holding company of Air India, clarified that this was not tantamount to retrenchment as was being done by private carriers Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines.
Jet laid off 1,900 jobs as it tries to ward off the impact of the financial crisis in the aviation sector.
The official said that a proposal for leave without pay could be brought before the company's Board soon.
The government on Wednesday had ruled out any job cuts in Air India, which employs nearly 25,000 people, with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel saying that there were no plans to prune staff strength.
"No...Air India is not going to have any job cuts. Certainly it (the aviation crisis) will affect the growth plans, it will affect the future employment opportunities which would have come the way of Air India in case the aviation industry was in a much better financial health," Patel said.
"But as of now I do not have the luxury to say beyond the fact that those who are working for the Air India shall continue to do so and we shall not have any issue of people being laid off," he said.