Business - India;Jet proposes 25% pay cut

Mumbai: Reeling under economic metldown and falling passenger traffic, Jet Airways on Sunday proposed upto 25% salary cut for engineers, pilots and other staff and a Voluntary Retirement Scheme for older employees.
While engineers and commercial staff have agreed to take the proposed pay cut, pilots have refused to fall in line, saying the Airline should do away with the expatriate pilots if it had to cut costs, said a Jet Airways source.
A meeting of the airlines management presided by Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal proposed that the salary of junior pilots be cut by 10% and that of senior pilots by 20%, sources said.
The proposed graded salary structure for all employees has kept a threshold for it saying those drawing Rs75,000 per month would not face any cut in their salary, sources said.
The management is also understood to have set up a committee to study the graded structure.
Sources said it was proposed that those drawing Rs5 lakh-plus salary face 20% cut, those getting Rs2 lakh-plus 10% and those in Rs2 lakh to to Rs75,000 category agree to 5% slash in their wages.
The maximum cut of 25% is understood to have been proposed for senior most officials of the airlines.
The pilots suggested that the airlines should do away with the expatriate pilots as they were a “huge burden” on the airlines because of their high salary packages, a source close to the development said.
A proposal was also mooted at the meeting for Voluntary Retirement Service (VRS) to some of the older employees to cut costs, the source said.
However, Goyal did not accept the proposal, saying the Airlines did not have money to offer such a package, they added.
Jet Airways employs around 13,200 personnel with around 2,000 of them drawing a salary of more than Rs1 lakh a month. These officials comprise mainly pilots and maintenance engineers.
The air-carrier’s move to slash salaries comes in the wake of steep losses and rising operation costs coupled with falling passenger traffic.
Jet Airways posted losses to the tune of Rs384 crore in Q2 of the current financial year.
In October, the airline had announced a lay-off of 1,900 employees as part of its drive to prune costs but had to retract, following political pressure.
Jet had, a few weeks back, terminated the services of 35 out of 240 expatriate pilots.