Cash-strapped public carrier Air India would not sack employees but financial and organisational restructuring was on the cards, Union minister of state for civil aviation, Praful Patel, said today.

“There is no question of sacking; employees will be protected,” Patel said. Patel, however, said it was time for everyone — management and staff — to introspect.

“It is a tough time and we have to cooperate... we will have to go through financial and organisational restructuring to bring back the airlines on a healthy track,” Patel said.

He was speaking to reporters on his way to the Chennai airport, where he had gone to inaugurate a desalination plant by Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited and also the Manali-Chennai Aviation Turbine Fuel Pipeline by Indian Oil Corporation.

On wage restructuring, a decision on which is pending, Patel said “we have sat and agreed on a formula for wages to be paid in a particular fashion,” but did not elaborate.

On the two-hour walkout by Air India employees on Friday, which the management had declared illegal, to protest delayed payment in June salary, he said it was a token strike and flight operations were not affected.