SpiceJet air crew starts online petition against management over pay cut

A day after low-cost carrier SpiceJet deducted up to 50% salary for April for all its employees, citing the second wave of Covid-19 as reason, its air crew on Sunday started an online petition against the management

A day after low-cost carrier SpiceJet deducted up to 50% salary for April for all its employees, citing the second wave of Covid-19 as reason, its air crew on Sunday started an online petition against the management. The online petition stated that despite risking their lives and doing their duties, the employees are underpaid and that some who worked full-time have received very small amounts as their salary.

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The airline has, however, stated that part of the salary was deferred and will be paid to the employees later.

Airline sources said ground staff, cabin crew, commercial staff and pilots were paid only 10% to 50% of their April salary.

The petition read, “We all who file this petition want to make a change in how an airline company in India sees their employees...as per the latest Covid-19 survey from Indian Central government, people aged less than 35 years (75% of Covid cases) are most like to get infected with this deadly virus. No matter what survey says or news channel telecasts, we (cabin crew) risked our life to go on-board. We quarantined ourselves, we followed guidelines, we took care of customers on-board...why wouldn’t we speak for ourselves now?... All employees of SpicJet received their salary with massive 50% deduction. Some employees who worked full-time received only ₹12,000…”

The cabin crew said that the salary cuts by the airline were mentally affecting them.

SpiceJet spokesperson said the airline chairman and managing director Ajay Singh has decided to forgo his entire salary and that the airline is ensuring that most of their colleagues, including those in the lowest pay grade, are not affected at all by this deferment and will be paid salaries in full.

“The deadly Covid-19 second wave has resulted in the country’s worst-ever crisis with the aviation sector again bearing the biggest brunt. Unfortunately, we have been forced to implement certain tough measures to secure the long-term interest of the SpiceJet family. There will be no salary cut for any employee. However, under these extreme and unavoidable circumstances we are enduring, we are forced to implement a graded salary deferment for some of our employees. This is only a temporary measure and the deferred salary amount will be paid by the company in full once the condition improves,” the airline spokesperson added.

In an internal communication to its pilots on Saturday, the airline said the domestic passenger traffic across all airlines, which had peaked at more than 300,000 passengers on a daily basis in mid-February, has now drastically dropped to less than 130,000 passengers per day.

“..The salary deferment (of between 10% and 50%) in the higher pay grades is a temporary measure to survive this economic crisis and the deferred salaries will be paid by the company once the conditions improve,” read the internal mail.