By IANS,
New Delhi : National carrier Air India has agreed to pay incentives to its employees before Diwali.
Earlier Air India had postponed the payment of performance linked incentives (PLI) to Nov 14, triggering protests from employees’ unions as the important festival of Diwali falls Nov 5.
“The incentives and PIL has been preponed to Nov 4, as some resentment was noticed among the employees leading to this revisal,” an airline official told IANS.
According to the official, the cash-strapped airline will pay the October salaries to the employees Nov 1.
Sources in the employees’ union said the national carrier had also written to the Chief Labour Commissioner Oct 20 about the postponement of the incentives.
The main reason given by the airline was cash-crunch due to payments to oil companies, new aircraft induction and repayment of bank loans and interest.
According to union sources, the employees also had resentments because the company recently appointed chief operating officers (COO) for Air India and low-cost subsidiary Air India Express and a chief training officer which would cost around Rs.5.5 crore annually.
PLI or flying allowance comprises almost 50 to 60 percent of the employees’ pay package.