State-owned carrier Air India has requested its top officials to forgo July’s salary and productivity-linked incentives as their contribution to help the airline that finds itself in a deep financial crisis. In an internal communiqué today, chairman & managing director (CMD) Arvind Jadhav stressed the carrier’s financial situation and asked its senior executives to voluntarily give up a month’s salary. The total number of executives who are equivalent to or above the designation of general manage is about 150 in the National Aviation Company of India Limited (Nacil). The airline refused to share the difference it would make to its monthly salary bill which is pegged to be in the region of Rs 300–350 crore.

The move comes just five days after Air India issued a circular deferring June salaries of its 31,500 employees by 15 days to July 15 and also just three days after British national carrier British Airways asked more than 30,000 workers to forgo a month’s salary.

But employees are not impressed. “We had a meeting with the management, and we realise that we are in a bad shape but what we don’t know is who brought us here,” said a senior official from the airline. “What were they (management) upto when others (private carriers) were rationalising on their routes and cutting down on unprofitable routes?” he said. “What is pertinent here is the fact that of the Rs 10,000 crore losses that Indian aviation is bound to face, we have a share of 50 per cent in that with just above 17 per cent of the market,” he said. “It is the employees’ right to ask what were they thinking when taking decisions that has put us in such a crisis.”

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