Apparently succumbing topressure from its employees demanding clearance of salarydues, Kingfisher management today said it would expeditepayment of October salary ahead of Christmas and claimed that"most" of them had agreed to resume work from Friday.
In a fresh letter to the striking staffers, airline CEOSanjay Aggarwal said, "We have received several requestsasking for status of salary for the duration of partiallock-out period and asking for salary in December 2012 to bepaid one week earlier than December 31, 2012.
"I am pleased to confirm that as a goodwill gesture thecompany will pay full October salary to all employees and wecommit to paying the same prior to Christmas, 2012."
Counter to the employees' claims that a majority of themwere opposed to the offer made by him earlier, Aggarwalclaimed that "most" of them had sent their confirmation toresume duty from October 26. "We request the rest of you tosend your acceptance at the earliest," he said.
When contacted by PTI, Aggarwal refused to divulge thesource of cash flow for the airline to manage the salarypayment.
The employees have been on strike since September 29demanding payment of salary dues since March this year. Thestrike had led to the company declaring a lockout from Octoberone, which was followed by suspension of their ScheduledOperator's Permit by aviation regulator DGCA.
The airline employees, who held meetings in Delhi,Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, had yesterday rejected theoffer of payment of three months' salaries in a staggeredmanner as part payment of dues and insisted that it should bepaid in lumpsum.
However, its Mumbai-based pilots had said they were readyto accept the deal offered by the management as a condition toresume work. Salaries have been pending for seven months.
Aggarwal had yesterday sent out emails to individualemployees offering them three months salary by Diwali inmid-November, saying if they accepted the offer, they shouldsend an acceptance note and resume work from Friday, which wasobjected to by the protestors.