Pay retirement benefits to AAI workers,DIAL and MIAL told

As per the agreement signed between these two private airports and the AAI separately,each was to absorb 60 per cent of the total AAI workforce deployed within three years,failing which they were to cough up the retirement benefits for the remaining. Of the total 2,400 AAI employees who were to be absorbed by these two airports,1,500 have conceded. The remaining 900 — around 600 at the Mumbai Airport and around 300 at the Delhi airport — are still on AAI’s rolls,forcing the authority to explore the option of transferring these employees elsewhere or offering them a lucrative voluntary retirement scheme.

The resources will considerably ease the pressure on AAI,and enable it to invest these funds,said the official. AAI holds 26 per cent and 27 per cent equity share each in DIAL and MIAL respectively. The ministry’s order comes after a bitter battle between AAI and the private operators over the issue of absorption of employees. AAI with a staff strength of 19,573 employees as on March 31,2009,incurred a wage bill of Rs 1,060 crore during 2008-09,up from Rs 947.58 crore in the previous fiscal even as its revenues shrunk year on year. Most of the workforce that remains unabsorbed at these two private airports belongs to the lower paid group ‘C’ and ‘D’ employees,mostly comprising housekeeping staff.