Kingfisher employees threaten strike from today

Kingfisher Airlines chairman Vijay Mallya's attempt to boost the morale of his employees by announcing that the airline's accounts had been unfrozen seemed to have gone wrong yesterday, with the employees threatening a strike over unpaid dues.

Ignoring Mallya's assurances on salary payment, Kingfisher employees threatened to go on strike right away unless at least half the pending salaries were paid today. The carrier's staff has not been paid their salaries for four months.

In his letter to the employees he had assured that all junior staff would be paid by 4 April, while pilots and engineers would be paid by 9-10 April.

Also, in an appeal to members of the Mallya's Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team, Royal Challengers Bangalore, the employees have called for a boycott of IPL matches starting 4 April. They said such a gesture would boost their chances of getting their dues.

Meanwhile, with the staff not reporting for duty, some flights from Delhi and Mumbai were reported cancelled.

However, no official confirmation of the cancellation was made. The stricken airline had on 27 March announced that it would operate 120 flights with 20 aircraft in a 'holding plan' starting 25 March and ending on 27 October, 2012.