But the airline management can also compulsorily send employees for LWP depending upon various factors such as efficiency, suitability, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy.
According to various reports, the department heads in the headquarter as well as the regional directors have started the process of assessing each employee on the basis of mentioned factors. Besides this, the authorities have also started to identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised.
News agency PTI on Wednesday quoted statements from the official order issued by the airline on July 14, as per which the names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD.
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Last week, Air India decided to terminate the services of trainee cabin crew and cabin crew. According to a report, the airlines have taken the step due to the dreary situation of the aviation sector which has been severely hit by the pandemic.
Several airlines across the world have been cutting jobs as the sector faces severe problems due to low traffic and high costs. A few days ago, the US-based United Airlines laid off 36,000 employees out of a total workforce of 95,000 personnel. Similarly this month, the UAE based Emirates also terminated the employment of several pilots and cabin crew.
A report by Reuters says the workforce of 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew could shrink by almost a third of what it was before the pandemic.