Rationalisation of pay and allowance to licensed category of employees of Air India in line with Industry practice and standard over and above the DPE guidelines

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved that in addition to pay and allowances admissible under Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) Guidelines as recommended by Dharmadhikari Committee, flying allowance shall also be admissible to pilots at different rates as per their seniority. The pilots would also be paid lay over allowance and special allowance. The pilots flying wide body aircraft would also be admissible to wide body allowance. The aircraft maintenance engineers and technical officers would be admissible to a special allowance depending upon their grade, seniority and level of qualification like number of licences they may acquire to perform their specialised nature of duties.

Similarly, the cabin crew would also be paid, in addition to salary and allowances as per DPE Guidelines, flying allowance depending upon their seniority and slab seniority system being followed in Air India.

The CCEA has also approved that the rate of layover allowance shall be the same as is admissible under applicable Government of India Rules for daily allowance. Keeping in view the fact that the aviation sector is highly competitive and dynamic, it has also been approved that the management of Air India in future would periodically evaluate the pay, allowances and perks, based on prevalent market standard, of its licensed category employees after taking prior approval of Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Consequent upon merger of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines in 2007, various processes of the two airlines were to be integrated within 18-24 months of the merger. One of the significant areas of focus was the human resource integration of the two airlines. The Ministry of Civil Aviation constituted a committee of external experts under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retired) D.M.Dharmadhikari to address various human resources and industrial relations issues in the merged company. The Committee submitted its report on 31.12012, which was further examined by a 3-member Inter-Ministerial Committee, comprising of a representative each of Ministry of Civil Aviation, Department of Public Enterprises and an independent human resources expert, with a view to recommend a time schedule for its implementation. The Inter-Ministerial Committee submitted its report on 31.5.2012. An Implementation-cum-Anomaly Rectification Committee has been constituted in Air India to implement the recommendations of the Committee.

For the licensed category of employees of Air India, Dharmadhikari Committee has recommended implementation of the revised pay scales, as per Department of Public Enterprises Guidelines dated 26.11.2008, with effect from 01.04.2007, which is the effective date of merger of the two erstwhile airlines. In view of the fact that the maximum emoluments admissible as per DPE Guidelines to the licensed category employees like pilots, engineers, cabin crew etc would be considerably less than their counter parts in the aviation sector. The Dharmadhikari Committee has recommended payment of certain allowances to these categories so as to bring their emoluments close to the industry standards. Since these emoluments are not covered by the DPE Guidelines, Government`s approval was sought for payment of these allowances by Air India.

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(Release ID :92365)