IA staff salaries match rivals

Mumbai\New Delhi: The salaries of Indian Airlines’ (IA) ground staff, who have threatened to strike work over wage arrears, are on a par with their peers in Air-India (A-I) and other private airlines.
About 14,000 of the 18,000-strong IA employees have threatened to go on a mass leave on May 18, demanding a settlement of their 10-year salary arrears.
The entry-level and the average salaries of the state-owned domestic carrier are almost similar to those of their counterparts in Air-India and domestic private carriers.
The entry-level ground staff in IA get a salary of Rs 15,000 compared with about Rs 10,000 at Air Deccan. The salaries of entry-level IA staff are at par with their peers in Jet Airways and AI. There is a difference in the pay packets of IA pilots and cabin crew when compared with those of its big brother, Air-India. While an A-I pilot draws an average salary of Rs 6 lakh a month, his counterpart in I-A gets Rs 5 lakh.
Air-India primarily flies on international routes, while Indian Airlines flies on shorter international and domestic routes.
Meanwhile, engineers of both the state-run airlines as well as those of private air carriers are paid between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh a month.
“Some private airlines are even paying their engineers Rs 3 lakh a month to retain talent. This is because of an acute shortage of engineers even as the airlines are expanding rapidly,” an industry source said.
Even the I-A employees’ association concedes that the pay packet of its ground staff is at par with those of private airlines.
17/05/07 PR Sanjay & Anirban Chowdhury/Business Standard