CASH-STRAPPED Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd will delay paying the December salaries of its staff for the second time after earlier promising that they would be paid by January 7.

In a circular issued to the staff, the management said salaries will now be paid by January 10.

“The company is continuously working hard to ensure the (December) salaries are paid between January 7 and January 10,” said the circular sighted by The Malaysian Insight.

Affected employees confirmed receiving the circular, which was signed by the company’s human resources general manager Mohd Nazlan Osman.

The company, which publishes Utusan Malaysia, first failed to pay salaries as usual on December 30. It had informed employees they will be paid by January 7.

In December, the company failed to make the first payment to employees who left the previous month under a voluntary separation scheme.

The first of 12 monthly payments has been postponed to an unspecified date.

Utusan said it had insufficient funds to make the payments to the some 700 employees who agreed to leave the Umno mouthpiece under the VSS.

The company had also delayed paying salaries in August, prompting the National Union of Journalists to urge Utusan Malaysia journalists to go on a partial strike.

The company had said then that it did not have sufficient funds for staff salaries, but eventually paid up on September 6.

The delay this time is the longest, causing unease among employees on the state of the company’s finances.

The Umno-owned company has sold its assets to fund operations and fulfil payments.

The Malaysian Insight understands that the company had sold its buildings in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya for more than RM30 million, and was awaiting for the payment to come through. – January 5, 2019.