The Government of India and Air India have strongly denied the reports that they were planning to downsize the workforce of the national carrier and said that there was no such plan under consideration. However, the airline clarified that it was considering proposal to introduce a voluntary scheme under which the employee in the non-operational segment can go on leave for three to five years without pay as a cost cutting measure. The clarification came amidst a storm created by the reports in a section of media that Air-India was planning a largescale lay-off of its employees. The Union minister for civil aviation Praful Patel told the media after formally receiving world's biggest aircraft Airbus A 380 at Hyderabad's Begumpet airport as part of ongoing India Aviation 2008 show that there will be no retrenchment of Air India staff. “Air-India is a government company and as government I can say very categorically that there will not be any retrenchment of Air India staff.” “There are some misquoted reports and do not get carried away by such unfounded reports”, he said. In fact the minister asked Air-India to think of acquiring new generation aircrafts like A380. “The time has come for many such aircrafts to fly in Indian airspace and we all should think of getting newer generation aircrafts. I will also ask Air India to look at acquisition plans for future. Now that the wide bodied aircrafts are being phased out, we should look at inducting newer generation, fuel efficient aircraft and I am happy that now choices are available”, he said. Meanwhile, Jitender Bhargava, the Executive Director, Air India clarified that the scheme offering an opportunity to the non operational staff to go on leave with out pay is still under consideration. “This is not a new scheme. It was introduced in 2002-03 and three hundred employees had availed it”, he said. The move was part of the cost cutting measures but how much saving will come out of this scheme will depend on how many employees will avail the scheme, he said. Bhargava said that it was wrong to say that 15000 employees will be sent on leave. “Our chairman had told journalists that there were 15000 employees in the non operational segment. If so many employees go on leave, how Air India will fly?”he wondered. “There is no element of distress; there is no force or pressure being put on the employee to go on leave. It is purely voluntary”, Bhargava said. He said that the reports in a section of media that 15000 employees will be sent on leave by Air India were wrong presentation of facts. The scheme will not be available to the employee in operational area like pilots, cabin crew and aircraft maintenance staff and engineers. Air-India has a annual wage bill of Rs 6800 crore. __
