The recognised employee union of pilots at Air India, the Indian Pilots Guild (IPG) has written a letter to the chairman and managing director of Air India that they are optimistic about the fact that before the handover of Air India to the new owners, the government will pay the overdue reimbursements and salaries of the pilots.
In the letter, the IPG mentioned that as per the 2006 Wage Pact, a monthly Layover Subsistence Allowance (LSA) was decided to be paid to all the pilots. However, since the last few years, there has been a cut of 25 per cent in LSA.
The LSA was meant to be paid to all captains and co-pilots during international layovers where the expenses were higher than the salary standards as the expenses were made in foreign currencies and since last few years, the pilots have been bearing the expenses during layover from their own pockets since the reimbursement was not paid in full.
As per the Wage Pact, overtime dues were also pending for employees since wrongful pay cuts were imposed on all employees in the year 2012.
Also, the IPG requested for the overdue and pending payments to be made in a proper manner clarifying that the LSA is an expense which has already been incurred and should not be taken as an income; that there should be no question of employees bearing the cost of any tax deduction from the amount.
The Guild also mentions that since the payment of overdue salaries has been pending for years, it requests the management that appropriate rate of interest should be dispensed to employees on the overdue funds.
