KFA crisis to end, staff defer strike threat

CNN-IBN | 03-Apr 11:55 AM

New Delhi: The stand-off between Kingfisher Airlines management and staff is set to end as the employees assured Chairman Vijay Mallya of their cooperation and deferred their strike. Mallya met employee representatives on Monday evening at his residence and the negotiations went on till 4 am on Tuesday.

The pilots and engineers called the meeting fruitful after the Kingfisher Airlines Chairman assured the employees that junior staff would get their salaries by Wednesday. However, the pilots failed to get any written assurance from Mallya to this effect. The employees are yet to take a final call on their agitation and have threatened to go on a strike if they were paid their dues in the next couple of days.

The pilots would be back to work soon with sources saying the end to the earlier threat of a strike from 8 pm on Tuesday has been deferred after Mallya's assurances.

They pointed out that Mallya had earlier assured them that they would be paid by the end of the February, but it did not happen.

Earlier on Monday, a meeting held at Kingfisher Airlines' Andheri office in Mumbai saw the agitated engineers and pilots giving a letter to the management with an ultimatum to either disburse their salaries by Tuesday or be ready to face a strike despite Mallya's assurance.

Mallya had promised that the junior staff would be paid before Easter on April 4 and all pilots and engineers would get their salaries on April 9 and April 10.

Mallya's letter addressed to the employees came after the Kingfisher Airlines staff, who have not been paid their salaries for the past few months, wrote to the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, which is managed by Mallya, urging the players to boycott the Indian Premier League (IPL) so that they get their dues.

Kingfisher has been closing down offices across India temporarily due to curtailment of flights from 64 aircraft to 16 aircraft. The Airlines has also suspended all international flights from March 25 and further curtail domestic operations even as Government warned the ailing carrier that its flying licence could be cancelled if it failed to meet safety norms.

Kingfisher has a total debt of about Rs 7,000 crore and accumulated losses of about Rs 6,000 crore. The financial crunch has hit Kingfisher's operations with dozens of flights being cancelled.

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