Meets members
of unions, cites Japan Airlines' restructuring
New Delhi, May
21:
Seeking the
cooperation of Air India employees in implementing the turnaround plan, the
Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, assured them that no jobs will be cut
as part of the plan.
He, however,
gave the example of Japan Airlines which reported a profit of Rs 12,000 crore
in 2011 after implementing restructuring plan against a loss of Rs 120,000
crore in the previous year.
The JAL
restructuring saw the airline sack 5,000 as part of the programme.
At a meeting
with the recognised unions of the airline, the Minister assured the employees
that no one will lose their jobs. Mr Ajit Singh pointed out that through
natural attrition the employee numbers had come down to 27,000 now from 34,000
five years ago when the merger process was implemented. This was the first
meeting that the newly appointed Minister was having with Air India recognised
unions.
The Government
is providing Rs 30,000 crore over 10 years as part of the turnaround plan.
Although the
Minister did mention that there will be some “pain” in implementing the
turnaround plan, there was no talk of a wage cut. Mr Ajit Singh also indicated
that before implementing the Dharamadhikari Committee report, the Government
was ready to discuss about its' implications with the employees. The Committee
was set up to bring about integration among the staff of Air India and Indian
at all levels.
While there was
no talk about the agitation by sections of pilots at the meeting, the Minister
did say that Air India was in trouble and pointed to how things were starting
to look good for the airline in the past two-three months.
After the
meeting the office bearers of the largest employees union, the Air Corporation
Employees Union claimed that they were in favour of stopping payment of
productivity-linked incentives till the airline was in a better financial
health.
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