Govt plans to lay off one-third of PIA workers
ISLAMABAD: The government has approved, in principle, a plan that seeks to lay off over 3,800 regular and contractual employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) — one out of every three persons — to cut annual losses by Rs4.2 billion.
The Economic Coordination Commitee (ECC) of the Cabinet, which approved the Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS) for the PIA employees, also sanctioned over Rs38 billion additional budget for the military to fence Pak-afghan border and give allowances to the armed personnel.
The ECC approved Rs12.87 billion as the cost of VSS to be paid in two- and-a-half years’ time.
The government has already approved a plan to lay off 9,350 employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Karachi.
“Ater thorough discussion, it was decided to approve, in principle, the voluntary separation from service scheme for PIA,” the Ministry of Finance announced ater the meeting of the ECC.
The decision to offer VSS to about 3,861 regular and contractual employees and restrict the PIA own workforce to around 7,500 employees to manage 30 aircrat also suggests that Prime Minister Imran Khan does not have a plan to expand the PIA operations.
In addition to 3,861 positions that have been declared surplus there are another 644 positions, being filled through outsourcing but are not required under the new operations plan.
In its working, the Aviation Division has actually shown 4,505 surplus staff, which is 31% of the existing total workforce of 14,576 employees.
There are 11,356 regular and contractual employees and another 3,220 positions are outsourced. Against 11,356 regular and contractual employees, the PIA management has declared 3,861 as surplus, which is 34% of the regular and contractual workforce.
The number of outsourced employees is 3,220 and 644 positions have been declared surplus.
The PIA management has planned to achieve the 1:250 (250 per aircrat employees) ratio for 30 aircrat, total 7000 to 7,500 employees are deemed to be the right size for PIA.