Air India, freshly privatised Indian flag carrier's staff are set to get a staggered salary raise to pre-pandemic levels. An internal letter sent to all Air India staff made the news. The pay scale will be phased in, with the first batch of increases beginning on April 1st.
According to the letter, “As the hope of a post-pandemic world seems within reach and the Aviation Sector takes off once again with some visible changes in our performance, we are happy to inform you that your salary cuts have been reviewed and the restoration of salaries will happen in a phased manner.”
After continuously asking management for the same in October and November of last year, unions representing AI pilots were granted partial salary restoration yesterday. Of course, a lot has happened at AI since then, and based on this action, the current management appears to be doing a good job of dealing with severe challenges.
The letter from Air India also details how much of the wage decrease has been recovered for all staff. Pilots, cabin crew, and other employees are the three types of employees. Let's start with pilots' compensation: according to the letter, flying allowance, special pay, and widebody allowance were all reduced by 35%, 40%, and 40%, respectively. Cuts in these salary components are now only 15% across the board, according to the revised guidelines.
Employees in the cabin crew weren't as badly hit at first, with only a 15% and 20% reduction in flying allowance and wide-body allowance, respectively. In these groups, pay restoration is 10% and 5%, respectively.
