As many as 31,000 employees of the merged entity
Air India (AI) have come together to demand an immediate meeting with Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi over the payment of their salaries and the airline's turnaround plans.
At least 10 associations and unions of the beleaguered carrier have individually written to the minister seeking an appointment in this regard and threatened to strike work across the country if issues concerning salaries and the airline's
turnaround plan are not addressed.
Employees claimed that they have not been paid salaries for May and not been given their performance-linked incentives, which constitutes more than 60 per cent of their salaries, since March.
Read how Air India accumulated its debt Vayalar Ravi said that 1,600 AI pilots drew a combined salary of about Rs 800 crore in a year and another Rs 800 crore was given out as the combined salary of the 28,000-odd other employees of the airline.
The
ailing airline has asked for another tranche of Rs 2,000 crore as equity in the next financial year to repay its massive debt. Its current long-term debt for aircraft acquisition is Rs 22,500 crore and its working capital loan is around Rs 17,000 crore.
The government has till now injected Rs 1,200 crore and Rs 800 crore in two tranches in 2009-10, raising the national carrier's equity base to Rs 2,145 crore. However, the Centre is unlikely to make further equity infusion as the airline management has been at loss to explain its position on the turnaround plan for 2010-14 that envisages revenue enhancement and expenditure reduction in phases.
Blog: The Maharaja's Advocate The airline has largely failed to initiate the turnaround plan that was initiated in August and called for a cut in costs by Rs 1,500 crore and increasing revenues by Rs 1,200 crore by the end of 2012.
AI, which made losses of Rs 7,200 in 2009-10, Rs 5,548 crore in 2008-09 and Rs 2,226.16 crore in 2007-08, anticipates major losses in 2010-11.
Courtesy: Mail Today
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