The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to demand Rs 400 crore as compensation from the operators of Delhi and Mumbai airports for not absorbing its staff working at both the airports before privatisation.
“We will ask the airport operators in Delhi and Mumbai to compensate us by Rs 400 crore for not absorbing 60 per cent of our staff working at these airports,” said a senior AAI official, who did not want to be identified. Senior officials explained both the airport operators were to absorb 60 per cent of the total 4,000 staff working at both the airports but the operators absorbed only six per cent of the total staff.
“Out of 4,000, 600 opted for the voluntary retirement scheme and the rest have been deputed to various other airports,” said another senior AAI official.
Before privatisation, both the Delhi and Mumbai airport had 2,000 staff each. Delhi airport is operated by GMR-led consortium Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) and Mumbai is operated by GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).
But the airport operators say the agreement was to make an offer to the 60 per cent of the staff at the airports.
“We were to make an offer to 60 per cent of the staff, which we did but only around 250 of them accepted the offer and the rest did not join. The agreement only says we have to make an offer and not absorb them,” said an executive of MIAL.
The executive further explains: “Three years after we took the operations of the airport, which is also called the operation support period, we were to continue with AAI staff. During the same period, we were also to make offers to the staff and AAI was to deploy them at different airports.”
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A DIAL source also said they offered them salaries much more than their salaries then but then they did not join.
AAI has been developing 35 non-metro airports across the country at a cost of around Rs 12,000 crore and is looking at bidding for building airports in Sri Lanka. The authority is also taking up the city-side development of Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Lucknow, Indore, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati and Jaipur airports through public-private partnerships.
During 2008-09, AAI had invested Rs 2,547.5 crore on modernising airport terminals, passenger facilities, air traffic and navigational aids. Its profit in 2008-09 was Rs 687.2 crore on revenue of Rs 4,185.9 crore.