Many Post Office employees learnt on Friday morning that payday may come a week late this month as, once again, the parastatal faced a cash crisis. In a letter to staff on Thursday, acting CEO Mlu Mathonsi said, because of cash-flow constraints, only employees protected by the bargaining unit and those employed on a total cost to company basis would be paid on Saturday, July 25.Other employees, including Courier Freight Group staff, would be paid by Saturday, July 31, Mathonsi said in the letter, which Business Times has seen."The sad reality is that there is insufficient cash to pay all salaries on the normal pay date," he said.block_quotes_start Unless funding is raised from outside, current cost levels will have to be dropped by at least R100-million a month block_quotes_endClyde Mervin, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) president, claimed the notice was issued late on Thursday, with some staff who expected to be paid on Friday only becoming aware of the delay that day.On Friday, trade unions were supposed to meet with Mathonsi but Mervin said the acting CEO was nowhere to be found.Mervin said: "It's an indictment on the organisation. You can't have such a big organisation writing a letter - on the eve that workers must get paid - saying that they won't have access to their salaries."If workers are not paid, there'll be a crisis on Monday. Workers will not work until they are paid."Khulani Qoma, the Post Office's spokesman, said on Friday that "unless funding is raised from outside, current cost levels will have to be dropped by at least R100-million a month".Qoma added: "It must be noted that even with the best of intentions, [the Post Office] is projected to make a loss of R102-million by March 2016. Therefore, to expect the recently approved strategic turnaround plan to impact our current financial position already" was somewhat unrealistic.mini_story_image_vleft1The Post Office employs just over 20000 people.Earlier this month, parliament heard how the Post Office owed about R245-million to more than 2000 suppliers and that it was in arrears by six months on these payments.An administrator, Simo Lushaba, was appointed in November last year to turn around the Post Office following a crippling four-month strike and the resignation of the board. But the state-owned company continues to struggle to get its head above water.Mathonsi said in the letter the situation was not improving due to "declining [mail] volumes and revenue challenges. As a result cash flow is extremely constrained despite various intense efforts."In April, the National Treasury said it had given the Post Office R1.94-billion in guarantees last year to allow it to borrow.Qoma said the Post Office was allowed to draw down debt of R270-million on this basis.Last September, the Post Office approached the National Treasury for emergency permission to borrow up to R320-million to pay staff.Two months ago, the Post Office told parliament that it aimed to improve revenue by R7.4-billion over three years and reduce its costs by R4.6-billion over the same period by attracting more government business and shedding 5065 jobs.It is still without a board and permanent chief financial officer, while its CEO has been suspended since last October on charges of maladministration...