Crucial meet to end Kingfisher deadlock underway

New Delhi  :  A crucial meeting to end the deadlock between crisis-hit Kingfisher Airline’s striking employees and the management started Thursday to further attempts to resume the carrier’s operations.

The company’s top brass has met the pilots in the morning and the ground handling and engineering staff later in the day to persuade them to join back at the earliest.

“The management is in Delhi and is holding talks with us. We are confident that some solution will emerge. However, our original demands stand firm,” a senior flight engineer told IANS over phone from Indira Gandhi International Airport’s Terminal-3 (T3) here, where the meetings are being held.

“We are happy that management is coming forward and holding discussions. If this was done earlier than all of this situation could have been avoided,” the engineer said.

The meetings comes after the striking employees rejected the management’s compensation offer Tuesday and said they may move court and seek intervention of union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh.

“We have taken legal advice on the issue, but we are awaiting more clarity on the matter before taking any further step. That is why this meeting is crucial,” he said.

The talks between the employees and management had failed Monday when they met in Mumbai.

The management is desperately trying to convince the employees of a new compensation plan which will allow the airline to restart operations – crippled since Oct 1, followed by the suspension of the carrier’s flying license by the aviation regulator – Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The engineers have earlier 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 Oct 26,” he said.

In a letter sent by the company’s chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal Monday to the staff, offered the March salary by Oct 26 followed by April’s pay by Oct 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. Employees are also keen to 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, but the government has to save thousands of jobs as they did in the 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.

The employees went on a flash strike Oct 1 demanding payment of their salaries by by Oct 5, which have been pending since March. They also claimed that non-payment of salaries has affected their morale and built up stress levels that can also affect operational safety.

Photo : AFP

Key personnel like aircraft maintenance engineers, whose airworthiness clearance is mandatory for any flight to take off, also struck work.

The airline has a total debt of Rs.7,000 crore from a consortium of banks.

Currently, the airline has only 10 operational aircraft from a strength of around 66 planes a year ago.

It was the country’s second largest airline by passenger traffic. But it had the lowest market share in September, which stood at 3.5 percent.

The company’s scrip at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Thursday was up 3.37 percent at Rs.10.75 per share around 12.20 pm from its previous close at Rs.10.40.

The scrip had touched its upper circuit limit of Rs.10.90 in the early hours of trade helped by the possibility of an early resolution to the crises.