Efforts by Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal to keep the cash-strapped private carrier afloat amid a global recession suffered a setback when the company?s local pilots reportedly refused to accept the proposal of salary cut and suggested to do away with expatriate pilots.
In a meeting chaired by Goyal at a hotel here to discuss several issues related to the salary cut of the Jet Airways staff, the chairman of the private carrier asked his employees to accept a salary cut of up to 20%, said sources who attended the meeting. The sources said the domestic pilots did not accept the proposal of a salary cut and instead they wanted to remove the foreign pilots, who draw 40% more salary than their Indian counterparts.
Jet Airways has 700 domestic pilots and 200 expatriate pilots. The senior management staff of Jet Airways brought a proposal seeking a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for them, but Goyal reportedly told them he could not sanction it since the company was cash-strapped, sources said.
Sources further said that there was a proposal to set up a committee to define the salary structure of various staff members. According to the proposal, the employees, who draw a salary above Rs 5 lakh per month, may have to agree for 10% cut in their salary, while those drawing less than Rs 4 lakh may have to settle for a 5% cut, said the sources.
Those drawing up to Rs 75,000 per month would not face any cut in their salary, sources said. The meeting went on for hours and the media persons were not allowed to attend it. No official from Jet talked to the media about the details of the meeting. The decision on the salary cut was not taken till the filing of the report. Jet Airways has a staff strength of 13,200, of which 2,000 draw a salary of over Rs 1 lakh a month.