Amid the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, the low-cost Indian airline Spicejet has reportedly cut the payments of a section of its employees by 10-50%, for the month of April.
While junior employees like loaders and drivers have been paid in full amounts, those including pilots and cabin crew, among others, have been remunerated with only 10-50% of their designated salaries for the month of April.
The company has ensured its employees that their deferred salaries will be paid in full, once the financial situation caused due to the second wave improves.
However, a definite timeline has not been provided to the employees, leaving the latter in distress.
SpiceJet Chairman Forgoes 100% Salary for April
As the domestic air travel in the country has reduced drastically due to the plummeting cases of Covid-19 patients across the country, the revenues of airline companies have fallen steeply too.
While SpiceJet employees like ground staff, cabin crew, commercial staff and pilots have been paid with only 10-50% of their salaries for the month of April, the company Chairman Ajay Singh has waived his entire salary for the month.
The company’s VP (Operations), Gurcharan Arora wrote to pilots on May 1, “The domestic passenger traffic across all airlines which had peaked at more than 300,000 passengers per day in mid-February 2021 (showing signs of recovery), has now drastically dropped to less than 130,000 passengers per day. In this backdrop, the company has once again been compelled to implement certain tough economic measures to secure the long term interest of our SpiceJet family.”
He added that the deferred salaries of the higher pay grade employees is only a temporary measure and would be compensated for, once the conditions improve.
SpiceJet Employee Reactions on Salary Cut
On receiving the salary for April, a SpiceJet ground staffer admitted that they were shocked on seeing their salary slip. “We took a cut in our salaries last year due to the pandemic. Employees have their equated monthly instalments and they will be badly impacted”, added the staffer.
A pilot complained that captains with over three years of experience are now earning Rs 1.5 lakh-Rs 1.8 lakh per month following a cut in salary last year. Earlier the earnings were more than Rs 5 lakh, stated Business Standard.
To this, a company spokesperson responded that it was not a salary cut but only graded salary deferrals.
“There will be no salary cut for any employee. However, under these extreme and unavoidable circumstances we are enduring, we are forced to implement a graded salary deferment for some of our employees. We are ensuring that most of our colleagues, including those in the lowest pay grades, are not affected at all by this deferment and will be paid salaries in full.
The chairman and managing director have decided to forgo their entire salary. This is only a temporary measure and the deferred salary amount will be paid by the company in full once the condition improves.”, added the SpiceJet spokesperson.
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