Government has announced that implementation of uniform structures for pay, allowances and career progression for employees of Air India will begin in 45 days. This is the main recommendation of the Dharmadhikari Committee set up for the purpose by the Civil Aviation Ministry. Talking to reporters in New Delhi today after receiving the report, the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Ajit Singh said, a four-member committee is being constituted for implementation of the recommendations made by the Committee.

The other major recommendations include the pay scales of the employees in Air India and will be linked to profit earned by the company .The salary interests of the pilots will be protected and in accordance with public sector enterprise guidelines and international standards.

Maintaining that the national carrier on average was losing 10 to 15 crore rupees daily due to the ongoing strike by Air India pilots, the minister said Air India planned to reduce this loss to five crore rupees as it was operating a truncated international schedule. Under this, Air India was flying 38 out of 45 every day. Mr Singh said, Air India will soon come up with a new business plan which will include hiring of new pilots if necessary. The plan will be prepared after reviewing the airline operations on all routes, particularly in the international sector where it was making losses or was not able to recover fuel costs.
Replying to a question regarding the strike ,Mr Singh called it illegal. He said the ministry will consider all the demands of the pilots but before that they have to unconditionally call off the strike.
AIR correspondent reports that the Dharmadhikari report on integration of about 27 thousand employees of unified Air India, including pilots, cabin crew and engineers, was submitted in January this year almost five years after the merger of two state-run airlines.