Agencies/New Delhi


A passenger walks with her luggage in front of a closed Kingfisher Airlines reservation office at the domestic airport in Mumbai yesterday
Striking employees of Kingfisher Airlines rejected the management’s compensation offer yet again yesterday and said they may move court and seek the intervention of Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh.
“At meetings held in Mumbai and New Delhi, the employees reached a broad agreement to reject the management offer. We will write a letter to them on it,” a senior flight engineer said.
“We have also taken legal advice on the issue, but we are awaiting more clarity on the matter before taking any further step.”
The employees’ meetings took place a day after talks failed in Mumbai to end the deadlock which started on October 1.The engineer said the latest offer by the management did not meet the bare minimum of demands.
“We are seeking payment of four months’ salary from March onwards by October 26,” he said.
The airline’s chief executive, Sanjay Aggarwal, on Monday sent a letter to the staff offering the March salary by October 26 followed by April’s pay by October 31 and May’s compensation before Diwali.
However, the employees have demanded an upfront payment of salaries, citing a lack of trust with the management.
“They have been issuing letters, e-mail and other communications assuring us of payment which has not been made. We cannot go on trusting them forever,” the engineer said.
He added that the employees may also seek the civil aviation minister’s intervention.
“In this particular case the government should play a pro-active role like they did in the Satyam scam. Though the situation may vary, the government has to save the thousands of jobs as they did in Satyam’s case.”
Nearly 6,500 employees of the airline face the possibility of losing their jobs as the airline remains in a state of lockout.
On Monday the aviation minister virtually sounded the death knell for the cash-strapped airline, saying it would be “very difficult” for the ailing carrier to resume operations.
The statement comes after the aviation regulator on Saturday suspended the flying licence of the debt-laden airline, which has grounded its fleet since October 1.
Kingfisher, promoted by liquor baron Vijay Mallya on its best selling beer brand, owes billions of dollars in taxes, airport fees and to staff.
“It would be very difficult,” Ajit Singh said NDTV news channel, when asked if Kingfisher could start flying again.
Mallya is desperately seeking a foreign buyer to save it from complete collapse, but many analysts are doubtful any rescue is possible.Kingfisher was India’s second-largest airline until a year ago but now it has a market share of just 3.5%, the smallest of the country’s carriers.
Local banks - which own a quarter of Kingfisher - have rejected a request from the company for another loan. Kingfisher employees “must be feeling that they have been taken for a ride,” Singh said.
A report by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based consultancy, says Kingfisher’s debts total $2.49bn including bank debts of $1.1bn, and it had accumulated losses of $1.9bn.