Three days after Business Today did a story on how a go-slow by IndiGo cabin crew may have resulted in widespread flight delays at India’s largest airline on July 3 and 4, the market leader has announced a slew of measures to partly address grievances among pilots.
It was earlier reported that the large-scale rescheduling at the airline resulted from a number of cabin crew taking leave to appear for walk-in interviews with Air India. Following the publication of the BT story, which had Air India denying any such interviews happening on those days, the speculation was finally put to rest.
In an internal mail to pilots – which has been accessed by BT – the airline said it will be restoring 8 per cent of pilot salaries from next month. This is over and above the 8 per cent salary restoration which the airline had earlier announced in March this year. With this latest move, IndiGo has reinstated 16 per cent cut made to pilot salaries.
The airline has committed to restore an additional 6.5 per cent in November if the recovery in the airline industry continues. It had announced a nearly 28 per cent pay cut for pilots during the pandemic.
Other relief measures
IndiGo also said that it will also be restoring 30 per cent of the “sector pay”, which is an overtime allowance that is calculated on the basis of hours put in by pilots and cabin crew on a flight. The airline has also undertaken distribution of forex cards whereby the allowance payable to the employee during an international layover will be directly credited to them.
Similarly, the upgrade policy for pilots will also be revised this month. For instance, the upgrade of an eligible senior first officer to the role of captain was so far being determined on the date the pilot met all the stipulated requirements. In view of employee feedback, the airline has decided to use seniority as the criteria, a norm that is widely followed by leading global airlines. Eligible candidates will now be prioritised for command upgrade based on their ranking in the carrier’s seniority list for pilots.
The airline would also be shifting pilots availing flexible leave involving one week or 60-hours of flying to 42 days paid leave programme from August. It is also looking at inviting applications for the 22 days paid leaves programme in the coming months.
BT has reached out to IndiGo for an official comment. The story will be updated as and when they respond.
Rumblings of discontent
Delay in reinstatement of pre-pandemic pay is cited among the main causes behind the discontentment brewing at the airline as well as some other LCCs.
“There has been some disenchantment with the management in the last couple of years. Therefore, these decisions are a positive development and encourage us to hope that things will start improving from this point,” a cautious IndiGo pilot told BT requesting anonymity.
“The rollback of the pay cuts announced in 2020 has been woefully slow and in small tranches,” informed senior aviator and former operations head of IndiGo, Captain Shakti Lumba.
Another area of concern for employees such as pilots and cabin crew are long working hours.
“Revisions to the earlier Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) were done by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in a manner that favours the airline companies at the cost of the employee,” said Captain Lumba.
Those changes have resulted in longer working longer hours and disrupting work-life balance, pilots and crew members working especially with Indian LCCs have often alleged.