Air India employees had salary deduction for failing to vacate staff quarters

Employees in Vasant Vihar in Delhi and the Air India Colony in Mumbai who haven’t moved out of the home provided by the company have started having pay deducted from their salaries. The employees said that their December salaries had been significantly reduced, anywhere from 15,000 to 90,000 rupees.

Last Friday marked the airline’s one-year of being privatised, but many of its employees who live in the airline’s staff quarters in Mumbai and Delhi had to accept severe pay cuts and hefty rising rents. Due to this, deductions have been made from the salaries of the employees who haven’t left their flats as of August 2022 and will keep happening until they do.

They will also be required to pay a 10 lakh rupee additional penalty on top of the standard deductions. A letter informing Air India personnel living in the Air India Colonies in Kalina in Mumbai and Vasant Vihar in Delhi that a fine of 15 lakh and 10 lakh rupees, respectively, will be withdrawn from their pay and other benefits was sent, according to ANI.

The employees of Air India claim that although the government gave the Tatas control of Air India, the colony was left out of the agreement. Due to higher establishment and living costs in Mumbai, which is regarded as the nation’s financial capital, employees there will see larger pay reductions than those in Delhi.

In a letter written to Air India last year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) stated that individuals who don’t leave their accommodations will have to pay double the market rate for rent each month in addition to the fine.

In a letter dated September 29, 2021, it was stated that anyone found residing in company accommodation without permission from August 1, 2022 until the date of vacating the housing would be subject to a penalty fee equal to the sum of normal occupancy charges and double the market rent. The penal rent will be deducted from the employee’s income and other due payments.