The Air India management and its unions on Wednesday failed to reach an agreement on a wage cut as a majority of the employees opposed any revision.
The meeting with the management went on till the early hours of today [Wednesday] but ended without any agreement on the issue, Air Corporation Employees Union (ACEU) Regional Secretary Vivek Rao told PTI here.
The management had called the meeting to discuss its proposal of slashing the employees productivity-linked incentives (PLIs)/flying allowance by 50 per cent as part of its turnaround plan.
There are other ways and means to turn around the company than slashing employees wages, Mr. Rao said.
We are opposed to any cuts. We are, however, ready to sit across the table on other issues such as wasteful expenditure which would have an impact on companys finances, he said.
Air India pays around Rs. 1,400-crore as PLI to its employees which it wants to bring down to Rs. 700-crore in order to curtail its mounting losses.
Manpower expenditure constitutes the second-largest component of the airlines operational costs after aviation turbine fuel bill.
We have submitted our proposal to the Prime Minister on the turnaround plan. In our view, a wage cut is not a solution and we will continue to stick to our stand, Mr. Rao said.
There are 14 unions in National Aviation Company of India Limited, which is the holding company formed after the merger of Air India and the erstwhile Indian Airlines.
