Air India Boeing pilots seek urgent meeting with aviation minister over pay cut

The letter dated March 31 emphasised that Air India group flew over 2.9 million passengers through the pandemic as frontliners, yet since April 2020, an “illegal pay cut” has been forcefully implemented upon them which no other public sector undertaking (PSU) has undergone.

Air India’s Boeing pilots have written to the aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri seeking an urgent meeting with him. The letter dated March 31 emphasised that Air India group flew over 2.9 million passengers through the pandemic as frontliners, yet since April 2020, an “illegal pay cut” has been forcefully implemented upon them which no other public sector undertaking (PSU) has undergone.

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“…effective April 2020, a unilateral and illegal pay cut has been forcefully implemented upon us...throughout the pandemic no other PSU has undergone such a drastic pay cut. Air India awarded a 70% pay cut to the very section of employees who during Covid times reported for duty, putting themselves as well as their near and dear ones at risk of getting infected. At the same time the management gave themselves a paltry 10% cut while effectively being cocooned in the safety of their own homes,” the letter stated.

The pilots had written to their management on March 23 highlighting factors such as the airline management’s decisions to remove pre-flight Covid testing and cancel or curtail pilot leaves. They also questioned the government on not rolling back their pay cuts despite seeing a rise in domestic travel.

Air India did not comment on the matter.

A pilot said, “In our recent letter to our CMD Shri Rajiv Bansal dated March 23, we highlighted several factors such as the Air India management’s decisions to remove pre-flight Covid testing, cancel or curtail pilot leaves and, the most recent one, to discontinue providing all meals to pilots in rooms at domestic hotels. These strategic and intentional decisions of the management are a clear indication that they believe that the worst is behind us.”

They pointed out the steady return of the aviation sector towards normalcy, despite which their wages continue to be paid out with the 70% pay cut.

“We strongly urge you to intervene and roll back this unilateral and illegal pay cut enforced on the licensed category of Air India’s employees as of January 1, 2021 in line with other Indian airlines. At this crucial juncture of the government’s efforts to privatise Air India, we reach out to you with a lot of apprehensions about our arrears, wages and service conditions which have not been addressed since 2006. We request you to grant us an audience at the earliest,” the letter concluded.