Moving quietly,private air-carrier,Kingfisher Airlines,has effected a Rs 80,000 cut in the salaries of all its pilots. "Earlier,we were being paid a salary of Rs 4.30-lakh per month. Now it has been cut to Rs 3.50-lakh,all in the name of integration (with the erstwhile Deccan)," a Kingfisher pilot said in Mumbai on condition of anonymity. The salary package is mainly based on the flying hours of about 70-hours,he said,adding that "the whole package has been revised downwards in the name of bringing parity with the erstwhile Deccan pilots." Kingfisher's management,while slashing the salaries,has taken the defence that it was only implementing the Deccan-Kingfisher package structure in Kingfisher post-the merger,' the pilot said. The pay-cut,effective for sometime now,is understood to have given rise to resentment and heartburn in Kingfisher's pilot community. A spokesperson of the Vijay Mallya-led airline confirmed the pay-cuts but said that it was the result of a move "towards a productivity-linked compensation structure,which is the international norm."
