A decision by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to do away with the productivity-linked incentive (PLI) for pilots and engineers of Air India has sparked discontent among a section of the staff. The move is expected to lead to a salary cut of about 50 per cent for pilots and engineers. The PLI, originally introduced in 1996 following the opening up of the skies to private players, was meant to stop pilots from leaving the national carrier for private airlines.
The PLI constituted about 80 per cent of the gross salary of pilots and engineers. The decision to abolish it in its present form was suggested by the four-member Justice Dharmadhikari Committee formed to look into issues of career progression, pay scales and integration of employees following the merger of the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines in 2006. The report was made public by the government in June. It recommended pay scales as per the norms of the Department of Public Enterprises for the executive cadre and as per industry norms for the non-executive cadre, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
A senior pilot with Air India said the present step would imply massive pay cuts for the employees of the national carrier: The flying allowance and layover allowance constitutes almost 80 per cent of the salary of Air India employees. The government wants to abolish the layover allowance for foreign travel and align the flying allowance with industry standards. However, the basic pay of our pilots is much lower than that of pilots of private airlines, and this will not be raised.
Another senior pilot said, The incentive is decided as a trilateral agreement between the management, the unions and the Labour Commissioner. Doing away with it arbitrarily is a breach of contract.
Sagnik Dutta
