Crisis takes toll on jobs, man hours

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: Even as the global financial turmoil forcing industries across the globe to tightrope growth and sustainability, India Inc is taking all possible steps—shedding manpower to slashing man hours to trimming production—to weather the crisis. While signaling that the domestic aviation sector, among various other industries, has really hit the airpocket, private air-carrier Jet Airways on Saturday sacked at least 25 expatriate pilots, including captains of Boeing 737 aircraft. The expatriates get between $15,000 to $18,000 salary per month besides perquisites such as five-star hotel accommodation and business class conveyance to their home country. Earlier, around Diwali, Jet had sacked around 400 support staff but later rescinded its move by taking back all the employees. Another private air-carrier, Vijay Mallya-run Kingfisher Airlines, had last month, announced a cut in the salaries of its trainee pilots as a part of its cost-cutting measures.

If the weekend sent fresh feelers about the health of the aviation sector, the whole week witnessed various measures by India Inc to swim across the troubled waters despite Reserve Bank of India recently cutting key rates to unlock fresh liquidity to help the industry tide over the credit crunch. The beginning of the week (Monday) saw global travel and payment services major American Express sacking less than a hundred employees in India to restructure its workforce. According to a company statement, reduction will occur throughout the company and across business units, markets and staff groups, primarily focusing on management and other positions that do not interact directly with customers. Those laid off, according to reports, were mainly working in the back offices of the company in Delhi and Bangalore.

And the tremor in the West continued to spread shockwaves at home throughout the week. On Thursday, Goldman Sachs slashed its workforce by close to a dozen in its Mumbai office, which has close to 100 employees. Goldman Sachs has also lowered headcount at its Bangalore operations by around 30. Moreover, Friday was rife with speculations that L&T Infotech, a wholly owned subsidiary of the country’s largest engineering company Larsen & Toubro (L&T), is axing up to 5% of its workforce of nearly 10,000 employees.