Colourscan employees cry foul on missed payments

When Jeff Osborne told his longstanding employees to get their entitlements from GEERS, he set off an outraged response.

The long-established Queensland printer called in the administrators after giving employees less than a day to clear out. He gave them ‘entitlement’ certificates so they could seek lost wages, holiday pay and long service payments from GEERS (General Employment Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme), the federal fund for employees of bankrupt companies.

To add insult to injury he invited some of them back the following week to finish work that was on the floor for cash payments. Employees, some with more than 10-years service, were outraged at their treatment and could not believe they were being asked back to work for cash after not getting paid wages. Monies owing are in the region of $700,000, including, according to a former employee who asked not to be named, the company’s social club contributions.

The company administrator, Demtri Georgia, Worrells, confirmed employees will not get paid their entitlements. Proceeds from the sale of the equipment will go to secured creditors with no surplus left over.

According to employees, superannuation payments, including salary sacrifices, have also not been paid for some time. Workers and their families are upset at what they perceive as a disregard for their loyalty and long service.

To Bryn Williams, the closure came a shock as the company, “had quite a bit of work on the floor. We were called in and told to leave that very day. When we asked about money, he said it would be taken care of. But to date we’ve received nothing, no super, no nothing, ” said Williams, an employee with 15 years service who is owed wages.

Tina Henricks is angry because she believes that Osborne has not done the right thing by his employees …the only one he looked after was himself. My husband is one of the staff members who was told not to bother coming in for work anymore, without warning, without a cent, we are owed thousands of dollars as are all the rest of the staff.

Another former staff member complains … He did not pay any staff their entitlements, not even the last weeks wages that they worked for him.

Colourscan is no longer trading and repeated attempts to contact Jeff Osborne for his side of the story were to no avail.