The civil aviation ministry assured employees of state-owned carriers Air-India and Indian on Wednesday that the planned merger of the two would not involve retrenchment, cuts or losses in pay scale, perks or allowances.

In a meeting with representatives of the employees groups of both the public carriers, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told them that fitments of the employees into the new entity would be done in such a manner that their service conditions would further improve and they would continue to gain, an official statement said.

An independent redressal mechanism would be set up consisting of representatives from the ministry, airlines, department of personnel and department of public enterprises to ensure that the employees grievances, if any, were addressed expeditiously in a fare and credible manner, it added.

Patel, who was mandated by the Empowered Group of Ministers to hold talks with the employees group, also explained the benefits of the proposed merger saying it would enable an integrated and domestic footprint, thereby significantly enhancing customer propositions and allow easy entry into one of the three global alliances.

He said the merger would provide maximum flexibility to achieve financial and capital restructuring through revaluation of assets and cleaning up of financial books.

Thus the merged airline would be in a better position to serve and promote the airport hubs being developed at the metro cities by providing seamless domestic and international air connectivity over these hubs, the statement added.

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