Mumbai: Air India's coffers are empty, and that means hard times for its 32,000 employees. The public sector unit is reportedly seeking a bailout of Rs 14,000 crore from the government.
Meanwhile, its blue collared workers who carefully budget every rupee have been hit hard.
After the company delayed salaries by a fortnight, Sudheer Rawat is worried how to get through 15 days without money? He works as a sweeper with Air India and is the only earning member in his family of seven.
Rawat earns around Rs 17,000 every month. His grocery bills, a vehicle loan, insurance premiums and taxes add up to around Rs 15,000. The remaining Rs 2,000 go into electricity and phone bills and school fees for his children.
With no savings, Rawat is unable to balance his monthly budget. Eight thousand blue collar workers like him are the worst hit by the airline's decision. That's 25 per cent of Air India's workforce.
"Unlike the executives we survive on monthly salaries. We get no benefits like free houses, free phone or fuel allowances. We can only survive if we get our salaries on time," said Dinakar Shetty, president, Air Corporation Employees Union.
Employees like Sudheer Rawat have little hope of getting their June salaries on time. But what they fear is that since salaries are delayed once, who is to guarantee that they won't be delayed again?