Airtel has decided to pay May salaries of nearly 30,000 staffers employed by its retail and distribution partners to reduce financial burden during the lockdown, PTI reported.

The Indian telecom operator had taken a similar step earlier also, to pay for April salaries of those employed by its distribution partners and retail franchise network.

Manu Sood, hub CEO (Upper North) of Bharti Airtel, said in a note said: “We all are going through an unprecedented situation and with the lockdown that got extended for the months of April and May, we have already seen a lot of impact on our business. This disruption also resulted in drop in business across many other sectors and categories in much worse ways.”

Airtel will be paying the basic salaries of over 30,000 employees of partners for May 2020, a move aimed at helping employees and families of channel partners tide over the impact of lockdown that got extended till end of May.

“We understand that this extended lockdown has also reduced your returns during May, as it was for the month of April. In order to help you tide over this tough time, like in the month of April, we are extending a one-time support for the month of May as well,” Manu Sood said.

The company has, accordingly, urged the partners to pass the base monthly pay to all their staff for May.