The country’s biggest airline, IndiGo, has suspended some pilots after simmering anger among them over continued pay cuts imposed at the beginning of the pandemic led to calls for mass sick leave on Tuesday.
“We confirm that a handful of IndiGo pilots have been suspended from duty for indulging in activities that are in contravention to the terms of their employment and in violation of the code of conduct of the Company,” the airline said in a statement in response to a query from The Hindu.
Several pilots said they were shocked by the airline’s disciplinary action.
The airlines’ pilots have been “frustrated” at steep pay cuts that continue to be in place at the airline despite revival in demand for air travel for the past few months, and ebbing of COVID-19 cases. For the past two years, pilots have seen a salary cut of 28%, while their flying allowances have been halved.
‘Grand union’
Last week, a few pilots had given a call for reporting sick on April 5 to protest the pay cuts as well as discussed forming a union of IndiGo employees, followed by a “grand union” of employees across various airlines.
IndiGo responded to these internal murmurs by partially reversing its pay cuts last week. It reduced 28% of pay cuts to 20% for pilots and 38% for examiners to 30%. It also promised that additional revision of up to 6.5% would be implemented from November 1, 2022.
While pilots across different airlines are affected by pay cuts that were implemented soon after the first wave of COVID-19 two years ago, those at IndiGo are the angriest of the lot because of the airline’s deep pockets as compared to others. Despite a challenging time during the pandemic, the airline recently reported a profit of ₹130 crore after a gap of two years along with cash balance of ₹17,318 crore, including free cash of ₹7,814 crore.
Employee stock options
What has also riled the pilots is that the airline recently allotted employee stock options (ESOPs) for the financial year 2021 to its top management. They have also asked how the airline could continue to add more planes to expand its fleet while imposing salary cuts for its employees.
IndiGo, which has 278 planes, is also the market leader with every one in two air traveller domestically flying with it.
Reacting to these developments, a senior DGCA official said that as a safety regulator there was “no role for us in the current dispute, if any, between the two parties.”
