Indian airline announces leave without pay policy for senior employees

IndiGo announced that  senior employees will have to go on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to four days per month till September as passenger traffic has reduced due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Domestic air travel has significantly reduced in the country during the last couple of weeks. On February 28, around 3 lakh domestic air passengers travelled in India while in comparison, domestic flights operated in India with around 70,000 passengers on May 30th.

"The second wave has been difficult for all of us and has also resulted in reduction in passenger loads. As a result our commercial schedule had to be curtailed accordingly," Ashim Mittra, Senior Vice President – Flight Operations, IndiGo said in an email to pilots of the airline.

Mittra also added that since the majority of the employees of the airline are in Band B and Band A, which are the lowermost bands, hence all pilots would undertake 3 days of LWP for the next 3 months effective 1st June, 2021. 

As per Indigo, approximately 80 percent of their eligible pilots have been administered their 1st dose of vaccine and this latest LWP policy sets precedent in the aviation industry for other organizations to ponder upon, when it comes to safeguarding the company and employee interests.