Air India shelves voluntary leave plan

State-run carrier Air India has shelved its under consideration voluntary leave plan for its employees due to the adverse conditions in the aviation sector. The scheme was an attempt by the airline to shed flab, but it failed to fructify and has now been kept in the cold storage.

As per the plan, interested employees were given the option to go on leave for two to five years without pay and rejoin services at the same rank with all the benefits befitting their rank. An earlier attempt in 2004 on similar lines had failed to evoke an enthusiastic response from the employees.

"The scheme was first initiated when the two airlines were not merged. About 400 employees had opted for it. But post merger the dynamics have changed," a senior Air India official who did not wish to be identified said. "Post merger we tried to revive the scheme but the response was too weak and thus we chose to shelve it for a while," the official said.

Also, the official said the scheme if put in place would have led to a lot of administrative issues like medical benefits for the employees which would have complicated the matter further. The airline is now planning to redeploy officials from departments that are overstaffed to other leaner outfits within the organisation. The scheme is now expected to be taken up only after the physical merger of the two airlines likely to happen later this year, the official added.