The debt-ridden Air India may slash salaries of about 5,000 of its employees, including pilots and engineers, following a rationalisation ofwages. 

A committee constituted to look into issues of integration of the national airline with the state-owned domestic carrier Indian Airlines is likely to recommend wage cuts in its report due by the end of the month as per a report in ET by Anindya Upadhyay.

"Almost 85% of the employees won't see a change in their pay, but 15%, including licensed categories and some flying staff, would," Justice DM Dharmadhikari, a retired judge of the Supreme Court who heads the committee set up last April,said. "We are trying to bring the wage structure of the organisation strictly under legal parameters, so that it conforms with the guidelines of the Department of Public Enterprises." 

Air India, saddled with a debt of Rs 43,000 crore, has not been able to pay its 33,000 employees for the past three months.