Employees of Kingfisher Airlines seek govt help in solving salary dues

Mumbai: The harried employees of defunct Kingfisher Airline (KFA) today approached the office of Regional Labour Commissioner (RLC) in New Delhi, seeking its intervention over non-payment of salary dues.

In a related development, the airline management failed to attend a meeting called by the RLC on the issue. Over 2,000 employees, not been paid for the last 18 months, had earlier been represented through Trade Union Coordination Centre at the RLC which had called KFA Chairman Vijay Mallya for a meeting today to discuss the issue.

"Since Mallya or any of his management team executive did not turn up for the meeting, we were advised to approach the RLC directly so that conciliatory proceedings under the Industrial Dispute Act can take place," Kingfisher employee Anjan Kumar Deveshwar, who along with four other colleagues has petitioned the Labour Ministry, said here.

"Our salary dues are pending since August 2012. The management is misleading us by saying it does not have funds and it is looking for investors. Kindly, intervene (in the issue) and direct Kingfisher Airline to pay us or terminate our services after paying compensation," the employees said in their petition to the RLC.

The employees alleged the wife of one of their colleagues committed suicide last year due to financial hardship in the wake of non-payment of dues and added the salary issue needs serious attention from the government.

The private airline is grounded since October 2012. Last week, the employees had appealed to cricketer Yuvraj Singh not to play for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the forthcoming edition of the IPL on "moral grounds."

The Mallya-led RCB bought Yuvraj for a whopping Rs 14 crore during an auction in Bangalore last week.