Air India to revise privilege leaves policy for staff from April 1

Air India will revise its policy with respect to privilege leaves for both permanent and full-term contract staff from the next financial year to align the policy with "prevailing market conditions", according to an internal communication.

From April 1 onwards, Privilege Leaves (PLs) accumulation limit for all employees will be 60 days in a particular financial year, the communication said on Wednesday.

An official close to the development said that under the revised policy, an employee can accumulate up to 60 days of PLs at the end of a financial year or can encash the same number of PLs.

Air India will also be putting in place a new leave policy for the staff.

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"We are reviewing our leave policy comprehensively to align it with the prevailing market practices. As a part of that process, Privilege Leave (PL) limit accumulation and encashment are being revised," Air India's Chief Human Resources Officer Suresh Dutt Tripathi said in the communication.

As per the communication, there will be changes in the leave encashment policy for the permanent staff.

At present, permanent employees can accumulate or encash up to 300 PLs. In the case of fixed-term contract employees -- pilots, cabin crew and ground staff -- there is no leave encashment option. While a pilot is entitled to accumulate 150 PLs, cabin crew and ground staff can accumulate only 60 PLs, the official said.

The airline has around 11,000 employees, including flying and non-flying staff.

Giving an illustration, the communication said that if the current accumulated PLs are 250 days as on March 31, then 60 days can be carried forward to the next fiscal starting from April 1. The remaining 190 PLs will be encashed, it said.

"Any employee who has opted for voluntary retirement and is being released will also be eligible for the encashment in their full and final settlement," the communication said.

Further, the airline said that all full-term contract employees will get encashment for the accumulated PL balance beyond 60 days.

"As a special case, this year, unutilised PLs for the current financial year will also be encashed for all employees (permanent and full term contract)," it said.

Going forward, the airline will also harmonise the PL entitlements for permanent and non-term contract employees.

Accumulation as well as to-be limits for encashment will be consistent for both permanent and full-term contract employees from April onwards, as per the communication.

On March 17, the airline made a voluntary retirement offer for its non-flying staff, the second such offer by the Tata Group after taking control of the loss-making airline in January 2022.