Sheffield Wednesday staff ask questions of Dejphon Chansiri as pay delay goes on
Many non-football staff at Sheffield Wednesday are still not in receipt of their full payments for the month of May as financial problems rumble on at Hillsborough.
Staff at Sheffield Wednesday still awaiting the full payment of their monthly salary for May have contacted The Star in an effort to publicly encourage owner Dejphon Chansiri to come forward with more clarity on their situation.
While some monthly salary payments were satisfied on time, some non-footballing staff received just £700 of their expected payments for the month and are now a week overdue on the fulfilment of their payments having initially been told the club had anticipated to be able to do so during the course of Monday.
The club have stayed in regular contact with Employees via email over the last week but any update on when they might expect further payment has not yet been forthcoming. Throughout their correspondence, staff have been encouraged to take up the offer of financial help from an ‘emergency fund’ set up by the club to ease any immediate financial hardship. The Star has been assured that this process has been successful and quickly enacted for those who have requested it.
Despite encouragement from the club via correspondence, The Star have spoken to some staff and family members of staff who have expressed a reticence to approach Wednesday for access to the emergency fund due to pride or an unwillingness to ask the club for money at a time of clear financial difficulty. Some have chosen to borrow money from close ones while waiting on full payment.
There seems to be a widely-held sympathy for fellow employees within the club who are being asked to relay apologies and correspondence on what appears to be little further knowledge of the situation. No public word has yet been made by Wednesday on the payment issues, with a recent statement arriving only to acknowledge EFL charges against Wednesday and Chansiri himself.
Now, speaking under the assurance of anonymity, a number of staff have sought to go public with a request for more clarity from Chansiri as to when they should expect to receive their full payments - and whether after two bouts of issues in payment in three rounds (players and some staff were paid late in March) means these problems are likely to become a regular issue going forward.
The Star reported earlier this week that Chansiri had reached out to a number of business associates in an effort to raise funds at short notice and it’s understood his efforts to ease problems continue, with the full payment of lower-paid staff his first priority. Chansiri cited cashflow issues in his private business affairs as the cause of the March payment delay, which was eventually solved on April 7.
In an interview with The Star at that time, he was not able to guarantee similar problems would not occur in the future - and so it has proven.