Leave without pay: Nacil has not buried the plan yet

Earlier, it had announced its intention of introducing the leave without pay scheme, the proposal for which had been drawn up and was awaiting the board8217;s approval. Under the scheme, NACIL employees could voluntarily apply for a leave of minimum period of three years, up to a maximum of five years. During this period, they were not to be eligible for their monthly salary while being able to avail some of the emoluments and benefits. Around 15,000 8216;non-operational8217; employees of the state carrier were eligible to apply. The 8216;leave without pay8217; proposal had received sharp criticism from all quarters with petroleum minister Murli Deora lashing out at the NACIL chief at a meeting called by him to resolve the impasse between the oil and civil aviation ministries. 8220;Nobody talks about layoffs,8221; Deora had warned while extending relief to airlines.

It had introduced a similar scheme in 2002-03, which company sources said, didn8217;t find many takers. 8220;Out of 17,000 employees at that time, only 300 had applied under the voluntary scheme in 2002-03,8221; said a company source.

NACIL has a combined staff strength of 33,000, with an aircraft to employee ratio of 1:1,600. For the company which had incurred losses of around Rs 2,100 crore last fiscal, the current wage bill stands at Rs 6,500 crore.