Air India to send some staffers on leave without pay for up to 5 years

Air India's board of directors has authorised the airline's Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) to identify and recommend sending of non-performing employees on leave without pay (LWP) for a period of up to five years. Air India Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal has now been authorised to send staffers on compulsory LWP "for six months or for a period of two years extendable upto five years, depending upon the following factors - suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy," the order said on Tuesday, news agency PTI reported.

"Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD," the order added. GoAir has also put most of its employees on compulsory LWP since April.

All commercial passenger flights in India were suspended on March 25 when the nationwide lockdown was first imposed to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Domestic flight operations resumed "in a calibrated manner" on May 25 after a two-month shutdown. International passenger flights, however, continue to remain suspended.

Last month, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that regular international flight services can be resumed when the domestic traffic reaches about 50-60 per cent and when other countries open up to international traffic without present conditionalities.Also read: Trump rescinds F1 visa order; international students can now take online classes

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