Rejecting chairman Vijay Mallya’s assurances, Kingfisher Airlines’ staff have threatened to stop work from tomorrow night, if the airline does not disburse at least two months salaries.
The latest flashpoint, comes barely two weeks after Mallya's meeting with the airline pilots in Delhi. The airline’s operations, hampered due to the freezing of its bank accounts, has scaled down to 120 daily flights. However, a Kingfisher spokesperson did not comment on the strike threat. Late on Monday evening, Mallya called over few pilots and engineers to his residence to discuss the demands.
The airline has a staff strength of around 7,000, but in the recentmonths, 150-200 pilots and cabin crew have left the airline. It has a monthly wage bill of about Rs 55 crore.
On Sunday midnight, Mallya, in a letter, wrote to all the airline employees that the salaries would be paid by next Monday. “All junior staff will be paid before Easter i.e on Wednesday. All pilots and engineers will be paid on next Monday and Tuesday,” Mallya wrote.
Adding: “We have managed to keep the lights on in our days of darkness, with adversity from every conceivable direction. The freeze of our accounts and consequent International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspension, the resultant loss of the BSP (billing settlement plan) booking platform, the adverse media blitz and the loss of customer confidence are all serious challenges that we have survived.”
Mallya also said he would meet all levels of employees at each of the major airports to understand their concerns . “I am personally passionate about and committed to your Airline,” he told employees.
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Director General of Civil Aviation E K Bharat Bhushan had warned the airline of action, over these salary issues.
However, Kingfisher staff have not been paid for the last four months and did not seem to be in a mood to relent. A planned demonstration at the airport here this afternoon was called off, but around 60 engineers and pilots who met the airline's executive vice-president, Hitesh Patel said they would go on a strike if two months salaries were not paid.
“In the past, we have received similar emails assuring us that salary would be paid on a certain date. However, none of the assurances have been met till now. The salary payments being overdue for months has left us feeling cheated and deceived, resulting in non-belief in your latest email. We are not currently in a mental state to undertake any duties and doing so would jeopardise the safety of our aircraft and guests,” the protesting pilots and engineers wrote back to Mallya.
Patel told the employee delegation that Mallya would meet a representative from each department at his Mumbai residence later in the evening, but a few pilots were keen that Mallya met all of them in the office. “To be honest, we are not expecting salary by Tuesday night, but we have made it clear to the management we will not accept their deadline. We cannot wait till next Monday or Tuesday for the salary,” a pilot said.