Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s husband Robert comes out of a Piaggio Aero P-180 aircraft after a test ride in Hyderabad. (AP)

Hyderabad, Oct. 16: The global financial turbulence has shaken the Maharaja’s court which is planning to prune its staff strength by almost half.

A day after Jet Airways decided to lay off 1,900 people, Air India officials said the company was formulating a proposal to send employees in non-operational areas on leave without pay for three to five years.

“We are planning to offer leave without pay for three to five years. We can consider it for about 15,000 employees,” reports quoted Air India chairman-cum-managing director Raghu Menon as saying this morning.

At present, National Aviation Company Limited, the entity formed after the merger of Air-India and Indian last year and which owns the airline, has around 33,000 employees.

A top Air India official, who did not wish to be named, said the scheme would not cover pilots, engineers and cabin crew personnel. “Employees in the finance and administration departments, Air India’s Hindi language (Rajbhasha) cell and the medical unit are among the departments that are expected to get the sabbatical offer,” said the official.

The airline with the enduring Maharaja mascot has already stopped recruitment in these non-operational areas.

Jitendra Bhargava, the executive director (corporate communications) of Air India, confirmed the proposal but was quick to point out it would be “voluntary”.

“We are not going to force this sabbatical on anyone. Employees will be asked whether they would choose to take up the offer,” Bhargava said.

Civil aviation sources said the proposal was to “armtwist” the Centre into announcing a bailout for the airline. “Why does the airline need to announce with fanfare it will offer employees the option of going on leave without pay?” asked a bureaucrat, who has worked with the ministry.

Menon’s statement sparked panic among employees cutting across airlines.

But civil aviation minister Praful Patel asserted there would not be any “lay-off” in Air India. “No.... Air India is not going to have any job cuts. Certainly it (the aviation crisis) will affect the growth plans, it will affect the future employment opportunities which would have come the way of Air India in case the aviation industry was in much better financial health,” Patel said on the sidelines of India Aviation-2008, the country’s first civilian airshow, in Hyderabad.

However, the choice of words was not lost on Air India staff, who said “leave without pay” technically did not amount to a “lay-off”.

“Technically it may not be retrenchment. But for all practical purposes, it is. What does a person do without pay for three years? They cannot take up any other job as they stay employees of the company. This is just another way of forcing people to resign. At least if they resign, they can take up another job,” said an Air India official.

Neither Menon nor Bhargava specified a timeline for implementation of the plan.

But the Air India source said the proposal was due to be placed before the airline’s board for approval shortly. “It is likely to be accepted. Even the (civil aviation) minister is with us on this because it will cut costs in the current situation,” the official said.

The implementation of the proposal is expected to prune Air India’s salary bills and save the airline Rs 16-20 crore annually, the source said.

Those taking the sabbatical will be entitled to air passages and medical benefits but will not get their pay and allowances.

“They will be allowed to start businesses, enhance skills, go on study leave, etc,” the source said.