A day after senior employees at the loss-ridden Air India were asked to forego their July salary, chairman and managing director Arvind Jadhav has on Saturday written to his staff that the current financial crunch at the airline should be viewed in the global context as the aviation industry worldwide has been passing through turbulent times.
In an internal letter he said, ?All airlines in India and abroad have been experiencing low fares, poor load factors, drop in premium travel, decline in cargo loads and low yields due to market conditions created by global recession. To tide over the situation, all airlines have been forced to take harsh and unpleasant decisions like curtailment of capacity, withdrawal of flights from certain routes, retrenching staff, reducing emoluments, etc.?
Jadhav also said Air India employees have thus far not felt the impact of problems confronting the aviation industry because the staff have been receiving their wages/salary and PLI month after month even when people in the industry in the country and abroad have lost jobs or seen their emoluments take a dip. ?We should, therefore, consider ourselves fortunate that we have been insulated from the adverse impact of the economic meltdown so far.?
Jadhav has further stated that as loans from financial institutions at high rates of interest cannot be availed of endlessly to meet working capital expenditure, the time has come for employees to face the moment of truth in Air India as well. ?Air India has not resorted to retrenchment or layoff of staff till date. Air India has only decided to defer the salary and PLI for the month of June by 15 days. Executives at the level of general manager and above have been requested to voluntarily forego their salary/allowances/PLI for the month of July,? he said.
Air India has approached the government, as the owners of the airline, for infusion of funds both by way of equity and soft loans. The carrier is hopeful that the government will extend a helping hand soon. ?However, as we have seen in the United States, financial help from the government comes with conditions attached. We need to be conscious of the impact that disinvestment/ privatisation can have on our lives, should this materialise,? he said adding that in the hour of crisis, the employees should rise to the challenge and emerge as winners.