Mumbai:
India's biggest private airline Jet said on Sunday that the cuts ranging from 5-25 per cent are necessary to keep the airline flying.
There is no decision on the salary cuts for pilots but they demanded that foreign pilots should be sacked before there are salary cuts.
This is another blow for Jet airways employees and another fall-out of the economic slowdown. After the airline laid off people last month and then took them back, the company has now decided to slash employee salaries.
The decision was taken in a four-hour meeting held at this suburban hotel between the management and airline officials, pilots and engineers.
Sources in the company said that salary cuts would be between five to twenty five per cent. Junior pilots will have their pay reduced by five per cent. The higher the pay would be, the more will be the cut.
Sources say that there is no specific amount decided for pilots and negotiations are still on. In keeping with the demand for expatriat pilots to be removed, contracts of some will not be renewed.
The company will also set up committees for more efficient management of pilots shifts and for hotel accomodation for the staff to be downgraded.
Committees to be set upCommittees support more efficient management of pilots shifts. Hotel accommodations will also be downgraded.
Sources also told NDTV that Jet chairman Naresh Goyal turned down a proposal for a voluntary retirement scheme.
In October, the airline announced the lay-off of 1,900 employees. But it was forced to take them back after the workers went on a large-scale protest.
With Jet incurring its biggest quarterly loss in September in more than three years, many see the downscaling of salaries as a logical step to keep the company floating.