Former women employees raise red flag, say Mallya misled everyone

NEW DELHI: Questioning his stoic silence over non-payment of salaries to hundreds of employees of the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines (KFA), a section of former women staffers has accused Vijay Mallya of misleading government and employees on the revival plan.

In an open letter, which comes on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, women employees have also accused the beleaguered industrialist of “killing” two airlines and rendering hundreds of people jobless. “You say that you are not a defaulter. But you confidently told us during the meeting that banks won’t be able to recover more than 5-10% of the debt amount. That speaks volumes of your malicious intentions.

“In the same meeting, you promised revival, payment of our salary... This clearly means that you had no intention of reviving the airline while you kept submitting misleading revival plans to banks/DGCA,” the women staffers alleged in the letter.

According to sources, nearly 700 of the 1,500 employees, who still claimed to be on the payroll of the defunct airline, are women.

“We the women employees of Kingfisher are forced to write this letter to call your bluff as a response to your media release, which as usual had nothing about us... you are talking about one-time settlement with banks and not employees. Why? Because we are vulnerable due to our system?” the employees questioned.