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Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines owes its employees Rs. 300 crore as salary

While Banks Are Still Grappling With Vijay Mallya In Court To Get Their Money Back, But The Fact Is Over 3,000 Employees Of The Defunct Carrier Kingfisher Airlines Still Haven't Got Their Salaries.

News Nation Bureau | Edited By : Hina Khan | Updated on: 10 Mar 2016, 11:11:17 AM

New Delhi :

While banks are still grappling with Vijay Mallya in court to get their money back, but the fact is over 3,000 employees of the defunct carrier Kingfisher Airlines still haven't got their salaries.

Going by the numbers, 900 employees are still, on paper, employed with the airline and about 2000 more who left since 2015. The salary arrears since 2012 work out to be more than Rs 300 crore.

Many of these employees, like technicians, ground staff and engineers are still unemployed. According to a leading daily, almost all the pilots of the defunct Airlines have been absorbed by other airlines. While most of the estranged cabin crew people sought employment in shopping malls and hotels at a fraction of the salaries they were getting with the airline.

The situation has been tougher for almost all the employees who were left stranded after the Airline went cash strapped.

In an open letter, the women employees wrote, “exploitation is in your blood, that's why you are talking about one-time settlement with only banks and not employees”.

The sad part of their story is people who have joined new companies are not able to get income tax refunds as the I-T department keeps adjusting it against tax dues which wasn't submitted by Kingfisher. They also said Kingfisher kept depositing provident fund but not salaries. “You issued us tax sheet (in lieu of form-16) for the full year 2012-13, but have paid us only till June 2012.”

Similarly, in a previous letter Mallya was slammed for not being paying the due salaries to the staff. The letter said, he has ‘blood in his hands.’ The letter also questioned why criminal proceedings hadn't been initiated. “We are still not able to understand what you meant when you said 'I don't have money to pay your salaries' while the spree continues, be it the Caribbean Premier League or luxury yachts,” they said in the letter.

Kingfisher shut down operations in 2012 due to cash and credit issues. It sank with total dues of more than $2 billion owing to banks, taxmen, employees, leasing companies, airports and other business associates.

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First Published : 10 Mar 2016, 10:40:00 AM

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