Covid crisis-hit Air India has begun identifying employees who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years based on factors such as efficiency, health and redundancy, according to an official order.

The airline’s board of directors has authorised its chairman and managing director Rajiv Bansal to send employees on LWP “for six months or for a period of two years extendable up to five years, depending on the following factors — suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the as as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy”, the order said on Tuesday.

The departmental heads at the headquarters, as well as the regional directors, have been tasked with assessing each employee “on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised”, the order added.

“The names of such employees need to be forwarded to the general manager (personnel) at the headquarters for obtaining necessary approval of the CMD,” the order added.

In response to queries on the order, an Air India spokesperson said: “We would not like to make any comment on the issue.”

The aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the coronavirus pandemic. All airlines in India have adopted cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, LWP and retrenchments to conserve cash flow.

GoAir has put most of its employees on LWP since April.

India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months. However, the airlines have been allowed to operate only with a maximum of 45 per cent of their pre-Covid domestic flights.

Occupancy rate in Indian domestic flights has been around 50-60 per cent since May 25.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23.

Passenger demand for air travel is expected to contract by 49 per cent in 2020 for Indian carriers because of the Covid crisis, global airlines body IATA had said on Monday.