Tata Wants Air India Employees To Retire Fast! Offers Incentives To Retire, Retirement Age Reduced To 40 Years

Air India, which is owned by the Tata group as of January 2022, has announced a voluntary retirement scheme, reducing the eligibility age from 55 years to 40 years for permanent employees who work as cabin crew.

The full service carrier will offer an ex-gratia amount to employees, who choose voluntary retirement from 1st June, 2022, to 31st July, 2022, as a one-time benefit, as per an order given by the chief human resource officer of the airline.

The government last year said the new owner of Air India will have to keep all employees of the airline for at least one year, after which they can offer the employees a voluntary retirement scheme. “The winning bidder will retain all employees, which means they will not retrench anybody for a period of one year. Thereafter, for the second year, if anybody is to be retrenched or removed, they will be offered a VRS,” Rajeev Bansal the civil aviation secretary said at the time.

As per the existing applicable service regulations of Air India, a permanent employee can avail voluntary retirement, subject to attaining the age of 55 years or completion of 20 years of continuous service. 

This news has come weeks after Tata Sons appointed Campbell Wilson as the new chief executive officer and managing director of Air India. Previously in the month of March, former Turkish Airlines chairman Ilker Ayci declined the offer to become Air India MD & CEO.

Central government sold its entire stake in Air India to Talace

In January, the central government sold its entire stake in Air India to Talace, a subsidiary which is fully owned by Tata Sons. The sale marked the national carrier’s return to the salt-to-software conglomerate after 69 years. The transaction included the flagship carrier Air India, its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express, and cargo and ground service arm Air India SATS.

Air India was in the total debt of ?61,562 crore out of which Talace has taken up ?15,300 crore. The remaining ?46,262 crore had been transferred to Air India Assets Holding Ltd (AIAHL), a special purpose vehicle formed by the government in the year 2019 for holding debt and non-core assets of Air India.

In April, Fortune India stated that Air India has offered to acquire the whole equity share capital of AirAsia India — a joint venture between Tata Sons and AirAsia Group, where Tata Sons owns 83.67% stake and  AirAsia Group has the remaining 16.33% stake.