Despite being on agenda, the proposal was not taken up at the Air India board meet
NEW DELHI: Air India CMD Raghu Menon's proposal for offering a voluntary leave scheme of 3-5 years to eligible employees may just have been shelved and the culprit seems to be Jet Airways' boss Naresh Goyal.
Ever since that fateful day at the India Aviation 2008 show in Hyderabad this month when Menon said his airline was considering a leave scheme for which up to 15,000 employees may be eligible, he has been under severe pressure to either withdraw or postpone it.
Menon's fault? He brought up the VLS issue just when Goyal decided to sack 1,900 employees from his own airline but later was pressurised into reversing that decision. "The timing of this announcement was really bad. To top it all, it was misunderstood by a lot of people who did not understand its voluntary nature and job security being offered to every employee who opts for this scheme," an airline source said.
During the high-profile meeting chaired by Union petroleum minister Murli Deora and Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel last week, Menon was once again pulled up for mentioning the dreaded ‘VLS’ word. “There should not be any layoffs. Why are you raising it now?” sources quoted Deora as saying to Menon.
So, the VLS proposal has been put in cold storage for now and sources confirmed that it was not even considered in Friday's board meeting despite being on the agenda. The scheme was originally meant for only “non-operational” employees which means it specifically excluded pilots, cabin crew and airport staff. It was being targeted at employees who needed to study abroad and young mothers who needed time for child care.
Such a scheme was announced in the erstwhile Air India in 1999-2000 and was operational for four years. But it did not seem to attract most employees, since at any given time only 400 availed of this offer.
b_sindhu@dnaindia.net
