Air India to send some staffers on compulsory leave without pay up to 5 years

Air India has started the process of identifying employees who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years, according to an official order.The employees will be chosen based on various factors like efficiency, health and redundancy.

The airlines board of directors have authorised its Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal to send employees on LWP “for six months or for a period of two years extendable upto five years, depending upon the following factors – suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy,” the order said on Tuesday (July 15).

The departmental heads in the headquarter as well as regional directors are required to assess each employee “on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised”, stated the order dated July 14.

“Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD,” the order added.

In response to queries regarding this matter, Air India spokesperson said,”We would not like to make any comment on the issue.”

The move comes when the central government is trying to sell off the airline altogether, the process of which has been delayed due to the virus outbreak.

The passenger demand for air travel will contract by 49 per cent in 2020 for Indian carriers in comparison to 2019 due to COVID-19 crisis, said global airlines body IATA on Monday (July 13).