Most Kingfisher Airlines employees seem to have accepted the management’s salary payment proposal and may resume duty on October 26. However, a section of the staff is still holding out.

In a mail to employees, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Aggarwal, said, “I am pleased to share that most of our fellow pilots and engineering team members have accepted our proposal and will be resuming duty on October 26.

“As a goodwill gesture, we have agreed to pay full October salary to all employees, without exception.” The employees have not been paid for the past seven months.

Some engineers in Delhi, however, have refused to accept the offer. “We are refusing your three months salary procedures because you have lost our faith and we appeal to you to pay the salary from March to June at one go on or before October 26,” the engineers said in a mail.

The mail also sought clarity on whether salary for the subsequent months will be credited by the tenth of every month without fail.

As to how many of the 4,000-odd employees have accepted the offer was not immediately known. It was also not clear when the airline will restart operations.

“We have been told to be on stand-by. But there is no clarity as to when operations will resume,” an employee said.

The airline, which has grounded its entire fleet and shut operations since October 1, saw its operating licence being suspended by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation on October 20, for failing to give a satisfactory reply to a show-cause notice.

Agarwal’s mail states that the management has been receiving several requests for the December salary to be paid a week earlier. “We will pay the December salary prior to Christmas,” it adds

>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in

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