Click to play videoNew Delhi: The global financial crisis may force state-owned Air India to downsize.
Air India Chairman Raghu Menon said the airline is considering three-five years of leave without pay for up to 15,000 employees.
"We are planning to offer leave without pay for three to five years. We can consider it for about 15,000 employees," Menon was quoted as saying by PTI.
Menon added that those who take up the offer would be taken back, if they so desire, at the same seniority and last drawn pay.
Air India Director of Corporate Communications Jitendra Bhargava said the leave without pay option will be given on a purely voluntary basis.
"Air India is initiating several measures for cost cutting one of which is introducing a scheme whereby employees of the company if they choose to do so on a purely voluntary basis can avail of three to five years of leave," Bhargava said.
Air India management has said that the leave without pay scheme for employees has been in discussion for the past few months, the sources added.
An official of National Aviation Company of India Ltd, the holding company of Air India, clarified that this was not tantamount to retrenchment as was being done by Jet Airways.
But Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Wednesday had categorically ruled out any lay-offs in Air India.
"No...Air India is not going to have any job cuts. Certainly it (the aviation crisis) will affect the growth plans, it will affect the future employment opportunities which would have come the way of Air India in case the aviation industry was in a much better financial health," Patel said.
"But as of now I do not have the luxury to say beyond the fact that those who are working for the Air India shall continue to do so and we shall not have any issue of people being laid off," he added.
An official of Air India, who did not want to be named, said that a proposal for leave without pay could be brought before the company's Board soon.
The 77-year-old state carrier, which initiated a fleet renewal programme three years ago and merged with its sister airline Indian last year, has proposed infusion of Rs 1,000-1,500 crore of equity capital.
It is also looking at soft loans of Rs 1,000 crore from government that can be repaid over a period of time.
According to industry experts the coming together of Jet and Kingfisher could further mount the problems for Air India.
Menon, however, disagreed with the views and said it would only lead to a reduction in competition.
"There are a number of routes and there are a number of airlines. All the airlines will be evenly poised in the market," he said.
Air India's move comes at a time when the aviation industry is in a state of crisis.
Jet Airways had on Tuesday laid off 850 employees and announced that 1,100 more jobs could be cut soon 1,900.
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