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Air India on March 17 offered voluntary retirement to its non-flying employees, the second such offer by the Tata group after taking control of the loss-making airline in January last year.
According to a communication, the latest offer will be available to permanent general cadre officers who have attained the age of 40 years or more and have completed a minimum of five years of continuous service in the airline.
Also, clerical and unskilled category employees who have completed minimum five years of continuous service will be eligible. Offer will be open till 30th April.
A total of around 2,100 employees will be eligible to avail the benefits of the latest voluntary retirement offer, sources said. Currently, the airline has a workforce of around 11,000 including flight and non-flying staff.
In June 2022, Air India introduced the first phase of the Voluntary Retirement Offer.
The employees have been requested to extend the additional benefit of voluntary retirement to other permanent employees also. In response to this, Air India is announcing the second phase of voluntary retirement offer, the airline’s chief human resource Suresh Dutt Tripathi said in a communication sent to employees on Friday.
“Employees applying for voluntary retirement from March 17, 2023 to April 30, 2023 will also be provided ex-gratia as a one-time benefit.
“Eligible employees applying by March 31, 2023 will get Rs 1 lakh in addition to the ex-gratia amount,” the communication said.
The first phase of the voluntary retirement proposal covered both flying and non-flying staff. Sources said around 4,200 employees were eligible at that time and around 1,500 of them opted for the offer.
In September last year, Air India announced the transformation plan Vihaan.AI, which focuses on various goals to be achieved over a period of five years.
The objective of the plan is to put Air India on a path of sustained growth, profitability and market leadership.
