Air India planes are parked at IGI Airport in New Delhi.
Air India has announced a new Voluntary Retirement Scheme. This scheme is for some permanent employees including cabin crew. Contract employees are not included in this scheme.
According to the Tata group airline, the new scheme is for employees who are either above 55 years of age or who have completed 20 years of service. The company has reduced the VRS eligibility age from 55 to 40 for certain cabin crew members and other categories of employees. In addition, the management has announced cash incentives for those who opt for VRS.
The latest move is a bid by the company to encourage a significant section of its employees to retire voluntarily. After successfully winning the bid for the airline on 8 October last year, the Tata group took control of Air India from the Indian government on 27 January this year.
Under the new scheme, Air India will give ex-gratia amount to employees applying for voluntary retirement from June 1 to July 31, 2022. Apart from this one-time benefit, the company will also provide ex-gratia amount to those who applied for voluntary retirement between June 1 and June 30. An order issued by Air India’s Chief Human Resources Office Suresh Dutt Tripathi said that the benefit and date of acceptance of an application will be at the discretion of the management.
“As an added benefit, the carrier is reducing the age eligibility from 55 years to 40 years for cabin crew members who are in grades S-3, S-5, S-7, E-0, E-1, E-2 , E-3, E-4 and E-5, clerks and allied workers in grades S-2, S-5, S-6 and S-7 and unskilled workers who are in grades S-1, S-2 S-3, S-4 and S-5,” the company said in a release sent to employees on Wednesday.
Since April, the airline’s chairman N Chandrasekaran has replaced the airline’s top management, bringing in senior and mid-level executives who have worked at other Tata group companies such as Tata Steel and Vistara.
Meanwhile, Tata has also started fresh hiring for Air India.
According to the data released by the company in October last year, Air India has 12,085 employees, of which 8,084 are permanent and 4,001 are in contact. Air India Express has 1,534 employees. According to AI’s last CMD Rajiv Bansal, all employees have to be retained for one year. In the second year if anyone is laid off or retrenched then VRS will be paid by the company.