Tata Sons will retain all AI employees for one year, can offer VRS in second year, says government

New Delhi [India], October 8 (ANI): The government said on Friday that Tata Sons, which won the bid to acquire Air India, will retain all employees for one year and the group will need to offer a voluntary retirement scheme if it decides on retrenchment after the period.
"The winning bidder (Tata Sons) will retain all employees for the period of one year. In the second year, if they aren't retained, they will be offered VRS by the winning bidders," Rajiv Bansal, Secretary, Civil Aviation told reporters here.
He said gratuity, pension fund and post-retirement medical benefits will also be honoured by the winning bidders.
The government has said that the interest of the employees and retired employees would be taken care of in the disinvestment process.
Talace Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, won the bid for acquiring Air India, marking the end of the process to privatise the national carrier with the government approving its disinvestment.
The CCEA-approved Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM) approved the highest price bid of Talace Pvt Ltd for sale of 100 per cent equity shareholding of the Government of India in Air India along with equity shareholding of Air India in AIXL and AISATS.
The winning bid is for Rs 18,000 crore as Enterprise Value (EV) consideration for AI (100 per cent shares of AI along with AI's shareholding in AIXL and AISATS). The transaction does not include non-core assets including land and building, valued at Rs 14,718 crore, which are to be transferred to GoI's Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL).
AISAM included Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and IndustryMinister Piyush Goyal and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Tuhin Kant Pandey, Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) told reporters that Talace was the highest bidder while Ajay Singh-led consortium had placed a bid of Rs 15,100 crore. (ANI)