After several employees of Air India succumbed to coronavirus, the company has announced a fixed compensation amount for the next of kin. The internal circular was released on July 20.
As per the circular, many employees of the company are getting Covid-19 positive and some of the employees have also died due to the pandemic.
The decision was taken to protect the interests of the families, and an ad-hoc payment to the family or legal heir of employees, who died during the period of Covid-19.
The compensation has been divided into three parts, family members of the permanent employees who died of Covid-19 will get Rs 10 lakh, fixed-term contract employees will be given Rs 5 lakh and casual employees who worked continuously for one year will be given Rs 90,000.
The circular also mentioned that if the deceased worker was employed through a contractor or service provider, his or her family or legal heir will be paid an amount equivalent to the gross salary of two months.
It stated that the ad-hoc payment circular will be applicable only for the period of the Covid-19 pandemic and shall be initially in force from April 1, 2020 till March 31, 2021.
Although the airline has not commented on the number of employees to have died and been infected, last week, in a letter to carrier’s CMD Rajiv Bansal, two pilot unions have disclosed that the virus has infected 55 Air India pilots.
Few days back, the airline issued an internal order asking its departmental heads and regional directors to identify employees, based on various factors like efficiency, health and redundancy, who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years.
Moreover, it said employees can also volunteer for the LWP scheme.
Along with Air India, all other airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, LWP and laying off employees in order to conserve cash flow.
