Air India wants employees to work for free

PAY CUTS     REMUNERATION     EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION     AIRLINES     ASIA

India - Hot on the heels of British Airways' and Singapore Airlines' pay cuts, state-run Air India has requested its senior executives to voluntarily forego their salary and performance-related perks for July.

The appeal by Air India's chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav comes after more than 20,000 employees had threatened to go on strike following news of pay deferment. "This is an hour of crisis for all of us. It is a fight for survival, the survival of our own airline," Jadhav told his employees.

"I am looking for every single employee of our airline to rise to the challenge and demonstrate that we not only have more experience in running an airline as compared to others," Jadhav added. "But also have the ability to overcome the crisis and emerge with flying colours."

The Air India management is currently in talks with the workers' union to work together in surviving the credit crunch crisis faced by the airline, reported AFP. The troubled flagship carrier has also reportedly asked the government for a bailout package.

As for other airlines, British Airways' CEO Willie Walsh will be working for free in July while Chew Choon Seng, CEO of Singapore Airlines, will take a 20% pay cut. Both national carriers are looking to cut costs after weak travel demand and high oil prices have severely dented profits. Chew's management team will also take pay cuts between 10% and 20% from July while the board of directors have volunteered to cut their fees by 20%.

The airline had also agreed with more than 2,300 of its pilots to take one day of unpaid leave a month and a 65% pay cut of one day out of their monthly basic salary. It said these measures would save S$21 million this financial year, reported Reuters. The International Air Transport Association predicted earlier this month that the global aviation industry is expected to lose US$9 billion this year.

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