Justice Dharmadhikari Committee

Four-member committee on the ‘integration of thousands of employees after the merger of two State-owned carriers — Air India and Indian Airlines’, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice D. M. Dharmadhikari, submitted its report to the government in 2012.

• The Committee tried to bring the wage structure of the merged organisation strictly under legal parameters, so that it conformed with the guidelines of the Department of Public Enterprises, which caters to other public sector undertakings.
• The Committee made several recommendations on critical issues such as career progression, integration across various cadre, rationalisation of their pay scale, allowances and incentives and overall restructuring of the entire staff of the erstwhile Indian Airlines and Air India.
• The Committee also recommended the constitution of Departmental Promotion Committees (DPCs) to ensure that this is done in a fair and comprehensive manner.
• The committee was constituted because the employees ever since the merger in 2007 had been agitating over disparities in their pay scales, promotional avenues and areas of responsibilities.
• The recommendations of the committee was implemented for the human resource management in these companies and then after a long time of protests the employees got what was due during the megere in 2007.