Kingfisher staff withdraw deadline, say they trust Mallya

Kingfisher employees have reportedly agreed to call off a 8pm deadline for the payment of their long overdue salaries and have said that they believed Mallya’s assurances that all pending salaries would be paid by 10 April.

In a letter to employees on Monday Mallya promised to clear staff dues and salaries from Wednesday, after the tax authorities unfroze the airline’s accounts. However Mallya’s commitment to resume paying salaries before Easter initially failed to cut ice with several pilots and staff who did not report for work, leading to the cancellation of at least 10 flights from Delhi and Mumbai on Monday.

The disgruntled employees had said such promises have not been adhered to in the past and that they felt “cheated and deceived”.

“We are not currently in a mental state to undertake any duties and doing so would jeopardise the safety of our aircraft and more so ever our valuable guests,” an email on behalf of employees said.

However following a late night meeting between Mallya and employees, the latter have decided that they can trust the Chairman of the airline and have repealed their deadline and called off the strike.