Vistara offers voluntary retirement scheme to non-flying staff ahead of merger with Air India
New Delhi (PTI): Vistara has offered voluntary retirement as well as voluntary separation schemes for its non-flying staff, ahead of the full service carrier's merger with Air India, according to officials.
A joint venture between the Tatas and Singapore Airlines, Vistara has around more than 6,500 employees, including permanent and contract staff.
The Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) and Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) have been offered for the non-flying permanent employees. Eligible staff can apply for the schemes till August 23, they said.
While VRS is for those who have completed five years of service, VSS is for the staff who are yet to complete five-year service at the airline.
The schemes are similar to those offered by the Tata Group-owned Air India earlier this month.
The schemes are not be applicable for pilots, cabin crew and those holding licences for carrying out their duties.
There was no official comment from Vistara on the schemes. The airline started flying in 2015.
Earlier this month, sources had said about 600 non-flying staff of Air India and Vistara are likely to be impacted by the two airlines' mega-merger, and efforts will be made to provide job opportunities to the affected employees within Air India group and Tata companies.
Tata Group-owned loss-making full-service carriers -- Air India and Vistara -- together have more than 23,000 employees.
Meanwhile, the fitment exercise -- which involves the evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of staff of both airlines -- in the run-up to the merger has been going on for the past few months. The exercise takes into account an individual's prior experience, performance and other factors.
On May 12, Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson, along with Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan, held a one-and-a-half-hour town hall meeting with employees of both carriers about the proposed merger.
At that time, Wilson and Kannan also assured that the fitment, or assignment, of existing employees into the new structure was being done based on merit and competency.
The merger, which will create one of the biggest airline groups, was announced in November 2022. Once the deal is complete, Singapore Airlines will have a 25.1 per cent stake in Air India. Vistara is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and the Tata Group.
In June, the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) cleared the merger, and in March, Singapore's competition regulator CCCS gave a conditional nod for the proposed deal.
Earlier in September 2023, the deal received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), subject to certain conditions.
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Cong says LoPs not invited to Putin banquet, takes swipe at Tharoor for accepting invite
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday said Leaders of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi have not been invited to the banquet for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and took a swipe at its own MP Shashi Tharoor for accepting the invite.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "There has been speculation whether the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha have been invited for tonight's official dinner in honour of President Putin. The two LoPs have not been invited."
Congress' media and publicity department head Pawan Khera accused the government of breaking protocols daily and not believing in democratic principles.
"There is no invite to both the LoPs, Mr (Mallikarjun) Kharge and Mr (Rahul) Gandhi. This comes as a surprise but I don't think we should be surprised. This government is known to be breaching all protocols. What else to say, ask the government," he told PTI Videos on the sidelines of an event.
Asked about party MP Tharoor getting invited to the banquet and accepting the invitation, Khera said, "Ask Mr. Tharoor. All of us who are in the party, if our leaders don't get invited and we get invited, we need to question our own conscience and listen to our conscience. Politics has been played in inviting or not inviting people, which in itself is questionable and those who accept such an invite is also questionable," Khera said.
"We would have listened to our voice of conscience," he added.
Earlier, Tharoor said there was a time when the chairman of the external affairs committee was routinely invited but that practice seems to have stopped from some years.
"It has been resumed ...I have been invited, yes. I will definitely go," the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs said.
On the LoPs reportedly not getting an invite, Tharoor said, "I don't know on what basis invitations were sent. I think the custom that usually used to be followed was for a wide representation. Certainly, I remember in the olden days, they used to invite not only the LoPs, (but) various other cross section of representatives of different parties. It conveys a good impression."
"I dont know the basis (of invitation), this is all done by the government, by the protocol by the Rashtrapati Bhawan, what do I know. All I can say I have honoured to have been invited. Of course I will go," Tharoor told reporters in the Parliament House complex.
Gandhi on Thursday had alleged that the government tells visiting foreign dignitaries not to meet the Leader of the Opposition due to its "insecurity".
His remarks had come hours ahead of Putin's two-day visit to India.
Gandhi had said it is a tradition that visiting foreign dignitaries meet the LoP but Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Ministry of External Affairs were not following this norm.
"Normally the tradition is that those who come from abroad have a meeting with the LoP. This used to happen during (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee ji's time, Manmohan Singh ji's time, it has been a tradition but what happens these days is that when foreign dignitaries come and when I go abroad, the government suggests to them to not meet the LoP," Gandhi had told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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