AI again defers disbursement of January salary

Mumbai, Feb 7 (PTI) Citing cash crunch, Air Indiatoday delayed for the second time payment of salary to its30,000 employees for the month of January.

The national carrier, which had earlier said that thesalaries would be disbursed on February 10, now says that theywill be paid on February 14.

"In supercession of earlier notification on thesubject (salary for January 2011) will be disbursed onFebruary 14 and not on February 10, as advised earlier," theairline said today.

Airline officials said that the delay was due to thecritical financial position.

A January 31 notification had said that due to"critical financial position" it has been decided to delay thesalary disbursement for the month of January 2011 to February10.

The ailing national carrier, however, posted Rs 49.48crore worth of operating surplus in December and Rs 21.66crore in November.

Air India employees used to get their salary on thelast day of the month but after facing financial crisis theairline management decided to disburse the salary on the 7thof every month. The airline''s salary bill is to the tune ofRs 31,000 crore per annum.