The board of Indian (formerly Indian Airlines) today cleared an attractive voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its 500-odd cabin crew.Under the scheme, cabin crew in the age group of 41 to 58 years will get Rs 13 lakh to Rs 25 lakh compensation, depending on the number of years left in service.The average salary drawn by Indian cabin crew is between Rs 40,000 and Rs 50,000 a month.Industry experts said Indian is giving a substantial premium over the usual VRS schemes as it is desperate to give a young look to its cabin crew. State Bank of India had paid a maximum compensation (pre-tax) of Rs 12 lakh to officers who opted for early retirement under exit scheme floated in 2006-07. The quantum of package for award staff, predominantly clerical employees was Rs 8 lakh. Indian has named its VRS scheme as a "rehabilitation and redeployment" package.The airline has also attached a clause to this scheme saying that an old cabin crew can switch over to other jobs within the airline by taking less compensation.The compensation will be in addition to the existing post retirement benefits. Furthermore, cabin crew who are below the age of 50 years can opt for ground duties at the discretion of the company. Such cabin crew will receive the benefit of an additional monthly compensatory allowance ranging from Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000 per month within specified limits.The government-controlled airline, which will soon merge with Air-India, has also amended its recruitment conditions so as to appoint cabin crew with qualification of 10+2 with experience. Traditionally, Indian recruited graduates as cabin crew.This move is aimed at targeting professional and young cabin crew of other airlines and to reduce the average age of the cabin crew. At present, Indian has crew members in the age-group of 40-58 years on various slabs of its total strength of 1,300.About lowering the qualifications, Vishwapati Trivedi, chairman and managing director, Indian said, "We have interacted with a lot of cabin crew of other airlines. They consider Indian as a great employer. This measure will attract a lot of cabin crew from private airlines.""Moreover, we are planning to recruit over 100 young and professional cabin crew in the next three to six months."The airline has placed orders for 48 Airbus airplanes.
