The fitment exercise at Air India, in the build-up to the merger with Vistara, is about to conclude, and about 300 employees may be rendered jobless as a result. Why? Because these employees were working on fixed-term contracts (FTC) with Air India for the past 10 to 15 years, but were not able to bag any role during the fitment exercise. Therefore, the airline may not renew their service agreements. These employees are all non-flying staff, as reported by PTI.
About two days ago, Air India offered two schemes to its non-flying employees. The voluntary retirement scheme or VRS is open to those permanent non-flying employees who have been with Air India for at least five years. The voluntary separation scheme or VSS, on the other hand, is offered to employees who have not yet completed five years of service with the airline.
However, the employees on FTC are not eligible for these schemes.
The airline’s management had, in recent communications, informed employees about potential job redundancies due to the merger. To mitigate job losses, the Tata Group had decided to offer alternative roles through upskilling and redeployment of employees within other group companies.
On 13 May, 2024, all the employees of both the airlines were addressed by Campbell Wilson, chief executive officer, Air India and Vinod Kannan, chief executive officer and chief integration officer, Vistara in a phygital townhall meeting. About 23,500 employees in total, were a part of the meeting where they were updated about the progress of the deal so far and what lies ahead for the merged entity.
