In a bid to avert unrest over delayed salaries, Kingfisher Airlines Chairman Vijay Mallya has told his staff that their dues will be paid in a phased manner from Wednesday.
“All junior staff will be paid on April 4, before Easter. All pilots and engineers will be paid on April 9 and 10. My focus now is to start paying your seriously overdue salaries,” he wrote.u00a0Mallya assured his employees that he would be available at all major stations from this week to address the staff’s concerns. “Despite all my other commitments to UB (United Breweries) companies, I am personally passionate about and committed to your airline.
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”The letter stated that the company could now pay the overdue salaries, as its bank accounts have been un-frozen following payments worthu00a0Rs 44 crore to the income tax department and Rs 20 crore as service tax.u00a0However, the staff of the cash-strapped airline is not sure if their boss will keep his promise. Hence, they submitted a memorandum at the Kingfisher operational headquarters in Mumbai yesterday.
u00a0“With reference to youru00a0e-mail sent on April 1, all the undersigned KFA employees have come to a point where operations have become unsafe due to stress caused by our financial constraints. In the past we have received similar emails assuring us that salary would be paid on certain date.u00a0“However, none of the assurances have been met.
The salary payments being overdue for four months has left employees feeling cheated and deceived resulting in non-believing your latest email,” the memorandum read.u00a0The employees have also appealed Mallya to pay the salary for December 11 and January 12 on April 3, 2012 by 8 pm and the balance of by April 20, 2012.