Ashutosh Singh Rawat, Monday 22nd June 2009 
Financial turmoil in Air India seems to be in its worst shape with top-brass of the carrier has been asked to forgo their salaries as well as productivity-linked incentives (PLIs), which are due to be paid in the next month.
The recession-hit carrier earlier asserted payment of wages and PLIs to its workforce of around 31,500 employees would be postponed. Incidentally, the monthly salary bill of the state-run carrier is around Rs. 350 crores.
In an inter-organisational communication, Air India\'s Chairman and Managing Director Arvind Jadhav has urged the top-level executives - general managers and above – to skip their allowances and salaries for the month of July, in a bid to help the carrier in battling out the liquidity crisis better.
In his communication to general managers, corporate directors, and executive directors, Mr. Jadhav requested for the same and wrote, “the top management needs to indicate to all employees in the organisation that every single paisa which can be saved needs to be saved”.
This is the first time any state-run unit has asked its top management to skip their salaries in a gesture to ease the company out from the ongoing liquidity crunch.
However, the move seems to be an attempt by the carrier to mollify its junior staff, which has been infuriating over payment delays, and also to grab the government\'s attention to the condition of the carrier which has steadily been losing its market share.
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