Sunday, November 23, 2008

Jet Airways Proposes 5-25 % Salary Cut


Nov. 23 Jet Airways proposes to cut salaries of its staff by 5-25 per cent, airline sources said on Sunday. The pay-cut will not be be applicable to all employees drawing less than Rs 25,000 a month and the details will be announced in a week.

The reduction will be according to salary grades; five per cent for those in the Rs 75,000- Rs 2,00,000 bracket, 10 per cent for Rs 2-Rs 5 lakh bracket and 20 per cent for those drawing up to 10 lakh.

For the top management, the pay cut will be 25 per cent.

For pilots, the cut will be up to 20 per cent and the management is working out a separate proposal, sources said.

However, pilots of Indian origin are understood to have told the management that they would not accept the 20 per cent pay cut so long as the airline employs foreign pilots.

At a meeting with Mr Naresh Goyal, the airline’s Chairman, here on Sunday, Indian pilots are understood to have told him to ask expatriate pilots to go before slapping the pay cut, said another source.

Mr Goyal also is said to have rejected a VRS proposal for senior management saying that the airline has no money to offer.

An airline official said the airline management had asked all senior staff to accept a wage cut in view of the current slowdown in the industry and the likely loss of revenue. The high operating cost, coupled with the drop in traffic, has been affecting the profitability of airlines.

Wage cost accounts for 15-20 per cent of the operating costs. The company reported a net loss of Rs 384.53 crore in the second quarter this fiscal.

The airline had sacked around 1,000 employees in October but was forced to reinstate them after two days.

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