Staff stand down set to continue at Paragon Printing

Paragon Printing staff stranded as administrators extend stand-down until Thursday.

The troubled company started the stand-down on 17 March. Expected to run until 23 March, it has now been extended for a further two days. In a statement, Hall Chadwick, who is handling the administration, said: “The Administrators of the Company have taken this step to enable further
commercial negotiations to progress with the company's principal customer, which resumed on Friday 19 March 2010,” said the statement.

“Negotiations since that date have proved productive. The affected staff of the Company and relevant union representatives will be kept informed of the outcomes of these negotiations.”

A spokesperson from Hall Chadwick also revealed to Print21 that discussions are currently taking place with one company who is interested in buying Paragon Printing. No one is willing to name names over who is eyeing off the business and Print21 was unable to reach a busy David Glavonijic, managing director of Argus, to find out whether his company was interested.

Pictured: Paragon Printing staff powerless as they wait for word on their future.

The extended stand-down has done little to abate anxiety from angry workers. According to Leigh Diehm, north-east regional organiser for the Victorian Branch of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union, who has spent days protesting in Wodonga, staff are sick and tired of playing the waiting game. “It’s not good,” he said. “We’ve got members who can’t even put food on the table at the moment. People are really hurt – they are a skilled workforce who just want to go back to work.”

Diehm believes that it is possible to achieve a positive result for the business. “We are hopeful that by Thursday we will have a solid outcome,” he said. “We need to know what’s going on. A buyer needs to come out of the woodworks and purchase the place because it is making money.”

Paragon Printing in Albury-Wodonga, along with Moore Office Products, entered administration earlier this month. The latter company is still running unaffected but owner of both businesses, Amir Hyster, is notably absent and believed to be in Spain.

Union storms empty office

After last week vowing to involve state or federal parliament in the fight to keep Paragon Printing alive, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union opted for the next closest thing and today stormed member for Benambra, Bill Tilley's office, only to find that Tilley was out of town.

Tilley (pictured) was engaged in a parliament meeting in Melbourne, but still found time to fire back at criticism from Diehm and the union over his supposed lack of concern for Paragon staff. "I see this [ambush] as a worrisome turn of events," he said. "Such an ambush is clear evidence of cheap political point scoring."

In a media statement, an emphatic Tilley said that he understood "the frustration of those workers who have been stood down at Paragon."

"Workers affected by the events at Paragon Printing have every right to expect that the entitlements available to them under a signed contract will be paid in accordance to that contract," he said.