(Image source from: sputniknews.com)

A voluntary retirement scheme package is said to be demanded by the Air India trade unions during their second meeting with the Minister of state for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi on Monday.

Over a dozen of Air India unions are said to be met by the minister which also included the unrecognized ones on Monday. This meet is said to be the second meet in a month regarding the privatisation plans of the airlines.

The first meet was held on January 2, where in the minister had made it clear that the privatisation was the only option that was left with the government in order to keep the airline afloat and to sought the cooperation of the employees in carrying out the disinvestment process.

A source from the airline has told that, it has been told that their jobs would be protected by the government if the airline gets privatised and therefore there was no thought of voluntary retirement. As issue regarding this matter would be raised at the meeting with the minister as the government has then said that, the jobs would be secured for only a year after the airlines get privatised.

It has been suggested that the new investor may be allowed for retaining the employees of Air India who are around 11,000 employees for only one year after the carrier will turn private.

The net-loss of Air India was around Rs 8,556 crore in 2018-19 and the estimation of the losses per day has been done and was found out to be around Rs20-26 crore, along with Rs 80,000 crore as debt.

A proposal has been made by the government to Air India to offload 76 percent of its stake while retaining the 24 per cent that is remaining and also to transfer the management control to private players. The deadline for the initial bids has been closed on May 31,2018 as the offer has failed to attract any bidder and therefore the offer has been put on hold and the process has been resumed all over again last year.

By Shrithika Kushangi