Goair to cut March salary of all staff

Goair will cut salary of all its employees for the month of March following grounding of all domestic flights in the country.

Goair is the third airline to announce a pay cut after Indigo and Air India, which have slashed salaries to tide over COVID-19 crisis.

“Under the current situation we find ourselves left with no choice but to extend salary cuts for all of us for the month of March. We will ensure that lowest pay grades suffer the least,” the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube wrote in an e-mail on Wednesday. The letter did not reveal the extent of pay cut for each category. The pay cut comes even as domestic airlines seek urgent funding from the government to pay 50 per cent of staff salaries for the next three months. Domestic flights were shut from midnight of March 24 and closure will remain in place until April 14.

The Wadia group airline had earlier implemented leave without pay for a section of it’s staff and fired foreign pilots to cut costs. Later, the one month leave without pay was extended to Indian pilots under training or to those not released for active duties. “In Goair’s 14year-old history, we have never cut staff salaries or deferred salary payments. When the tide turns once again, and it will, Goair will find the way to compensate all of you for the sacrifice you are being asked to make at this juncture. Given the strong business fundamentals of Goair, I believe that moment is not so far away,” Dube said.

“How can the airline cut salary of March when we have worked dor 24 days,” an employee asked. Experts, however, said pay cut is a sensible thing to do in the current situation to preserve cash.