Air India makes another voluntary retirement offer for staff
New Delhi (PTI): Air India on Friday made a voluntary retirement offer for its non-flying staff, the second such offer by the Tata Group after taking control of the loss-making airline in January last year.
The latest offer will be available for permanent general cadre officers who have attained the age of 40 years or above and completed a minimum of five years of continuous service at the airline, according to a communication.
Also, clerical and unskilled categories of employees who completed a minimum of five years of continuous service will be eligible.
The offer will be open till April 30.
Sources said that a total of around 2,100 employees will be eligible to avail the latest voluntary retirement offer. Currently, the airline has a staff strength of about 11,000 people, including flying and non-flying staff.
In June 2022, Air India launched the first phase of the voluntary retirement offer.
There has been a request from employees for extending the additional benefit of voluntary retirement to other permanent employees as well. In response to this, Air India is announcing the second phase of the voluntary retirement offer, the airline's Chief Human Resources Suresh Dutt Tripathi said in the communication sent out to the staff on Friday.
"The employees who apply for voluntary retirement from 17th March 2023 to 30th April 2023 will also be provided with an ex-gratia amount as a one-time benefit.
"Eligible employees who apply up to 31st March 2023 will receive Rs 1 lakh over and above the ex-gratia amount," the communication said.
In the first phase of the voluntary retirement offer, both flying and non-flying staff were covered. At that time, around 4,200 employees were eligible and out of them, around 1,500 people opted for the offer, the sources said.
In September last year, Air India announced the transformation plan Vihaan.AI which focuses on various goals to be achieved over a five-year period.
The plan is aimed at putting Air India on a path of sustained growth, profitability and market leadership.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
