Air India employees are likely to receive their salary in August as per the recommendations of the Dharamadhikari committee report. The Committee had been set up to bring about integration of unified Air India, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers.
Addressing a press conference in the Capital on Friday, the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, said that pay of employees will be protected.
The Minister and officials, however, declined to comment on whether there will be a decline in the monthly pay package that some employees will receive after the implementation of the report. The Minister said the implementation of the report would lead to an annual saving of about Rs 250 crore.
The saving would be on account of implementation of Voluntary Retirement Scheme and a cutback in passage rules. Passage relates to the number of free and subsidised air tickets that are provided to each airline staff and their extended family at present.
The committee is likely to recommend a severe curtailment of family members entitled to such passages after implementation of the report.
Mr Singh said that April 1, 2007 has been set as cut off date for new pay scales and promised that senior employees will not be paid less than junior employees. There will be uniform pay scales for all employees of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines, the Minister said.
For the executive cadre, pay scales are according to the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) norms and for non-executive cadres, pay scales are as per the industry norms.
A four-member Committee headed by Mr Nasir Ali, Director in Ministry of Civil Aviation, has been entrusted with the task of doing level mapping of the airline employees for implementing the report. The committee has been asked to submit its report within the next 45 days.
The Minister also announced that Productivity Linked Incentive (PLI) in its present form shall be abolished. However, it will be subsumed in determination of basic pay to the extent DPE guidelines.
Officials indicated that with the implementation of the Committee report the various agreements signed with Air India will be null and void.