AI slashes employee allowances up to 50 per cent despite protests

National carrier Air India has gone in for a massive cut in employee allowances even as protests from all sections of the employees continue.

As per an office order, this has been done as per the directions of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and following approval from the Board of Directors of Air lndia Ltd. The rationalisation of allowances will be effective from April 1, 2020 and shall remain in force till further review by the Air lndia Board.

This is an across the board cut in allowances for all employees, rather than just the pilots and the other flying staff.

The salary and allowances (such as lDA, HRA and other allowances linked to basic pay) will remain unchanged.

The rate of allowances other than DPE allowances will stand reduced by 40 per cent of the approved allowances. These include flying allowance, executive flying allowance, special pay wide body allowance, domestic layover allowance, quick return allowance, high altitude allowance, check allowance, instructor allowance, examiner allowance and additional landing allowance.

Flying allowance to be paid on actual hours flown by an individual pilot in a month. However, as a special case, all pilots available for flying will be paid fixed 20 hours of flying allowance or actuals, whichever is higher in a month, during Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of financial year 2020-21 on the revised flying allowance rate.

Simulator training hours will be paid on the revised rate of flying allowance. The overtime rate beyond 70 hours in a month shall be 125 per cent of the revised rate of flying allowance, while layover allowance at stations outside lndia will be payable as per the notified government rates.

Other applicable conditions and penalties will remain the same as per the Ministry of Civil Aviation's letter dated January 1, 2016.

For general category officers, salary and allowances (i.e. basic, IDA and HRA linked to basic pay) will remain unchanged. However, the other allowances will be reduced by 50 per cent.

For general category staff, allowances will be reduced by 30 per cent and same is the case with operators. For the permanent and contractual cabin crew, allowances will be reduced by 20 per cent.

All the above allowances will be paid at the reduced rate on actual flying.

For all categories of employees, including flying crew, foreign travel allowances/foreign daily allowance will be payable as per notified government rates vide MEA's order dated September 21, 2010. The layover allowance for the flying crew will stand amended accordingly.

For employees (both permanent and FTC) with gross salary up to Rs 25,000 a month, there will be no reduction in salary.

Further, fixed term contractual employees other than pilots and cabin crew with gross salary (excluding PF contribution) of more than Rs 25,000 per month will also be subject to similar reduction, i.e., 50 per cent of other allowances for executives and 30 per cent of other allowances for staff categories of employees.

Non-qualifying personal pay for permanent employees, wherever applicable, will be included in the definition of other allowances for the purpose of deduction.