Senior staff of Jet Airways won't be getting any pay hike this year

Jet Airways has decided to freeze pay hike of its senior employees of manager level and above, including pilots.

According to a report in the Economic Times, the full-service carrier had sent a mail to its employees on Thursday night, which said, "There is also an immediate need to stabilize our employee cost. In line with the same, it has been decided to freeze salary increases for this financial year. This salary freeze will be applicable to all employees in manager grades M3 and above and will be effective April 1, 2017. We understand that these measures are difficult and unsettling, but are unavoidable."

"Our company continues to have a very competitive policy on compensation & benefits. We have been able to retain employees and provide them with substantial growth basis performance and opportunities within the company. At Jet Airways, increments have been periodic and annual, basis the criteria of performance, inflationary trends, standard of living and other relevant factors," Jet told its senior employees in the letter.

"Given the competitive pressures and challenges in the airline industry, the need to drive a higher level of performance is immense. We are now on the threshold of change and it is imperative to reengineer our process and systems. Hence, it is essential to re-examine our standard remuneration policy and introduce a more dynamic reward mechanism which considers both, the company and individual performance parameters as the paramount criterion and factors in other market dynamics including overall wage cost and profitability. While we are undertaking several measures to overcome these impediments, there is also an immediate need to stabilize our employee cost," the letter read.

Jet Airways' employee benefit expenses in the financial year ended March 31, 2016, was Rs 2,388.1 crore, up from FY 14-15 figure of Rs 2,243 crore, the report said.

Earlier this week, National Aviators Guild (NAG), a union of Jet Airways pilots of Indian nationality had alleged that some of the expat pilots have been making derogatory and racist comments against the Indian pilots.

Jet Airways has around 60 expat pilots, who operate its Boeing 737 and ATR fleet. On 15 April, NAG issued a directive to all its members not to fly with the foreign pilots from May1.