Slashing salaries is a ‘lesser evil’ than pink slips in the domestic aviation sector, feel HR experts against the backdrop of a leading airline asking junior pilots to take ten days off every month as part of cost balancing effort.
While the domestic aviation sector has been registering double-digit growth continuously for over two years, Jet Airways' move to reduce junior pilots' pay and disinvestment proposal of Air India have thrown the spot light on the prevailing tough business conditions amid stiff competition. The sector might be one of the fastest growing in the world but most airlines have wafer-thin margins as deeply discounted fares and rise in aviation fuel prices along with staff costs take a toll on their overall profitability.
Against the backdrop of Jet Airways' decision, HR experts opined that the move seems to be a case of ‘organisational stress’ even though cost optimisation is a major concern for most of the sectors. Staffing firm Teamlease Services co-founder and executive vice president Rituparna Chakraborty said it is a specific situation of ‘organisational stress’. “... Between letting go off employees and salary cut of employees, any day, salary cut is a lesser evil,” she told PTI, adding that it is important to take any such decision in a complete transparency and openness with the employees. Recently, Jet Airways asked many of its junior pilots to take 10 days off every month, a move that would result in up to 30 per cent pay cut, saying the move is aimed at ‘balancing our cost structure’.
“As an interim measure, we shall be offering you a lifestyle Work Pattern which entails 10 days block off per month with the appropriate remuneration. This will be effective from August 1, 2017,” the airline said in a letter to many junior pilots.