Press Release
Pressure mounts on Huon Corporation as administrators launch Supreme Court action
Tuesday July 18, 2006
National Union of Workers Victorian State Secretary Antony Thow has praised administrators SimsPartners after the latter initiated Supreme Court action to try to recover some of the $30 million in worker entitlements owed by the embattled Huon Corporation.
The Supreme Court application will be heard at 10am on Friday (July 21, 2006) in Melbourne, with administrators and unions alike hoping Huon Corporation director John Schulz will be forced to make good on his promise to ensure all of Huon’s 600-plus workers receive 100c in the dollar of their entitlements.
Huon Corporation, which owns car component factories Empire Rubber (Bendigo), FRN (Frankston) and Mills Elastomers (Dandenong) went into voluntary administration nearly three weeks ago.
Last Friday (July 14) administrators announced 122 employees were to be made redundant (108 from Bendigo and 14 from Dandenong) with no money for any entitlements.
This move resulted in workers from all three sites initiating a community protest, demanding John Schulz hand back assets which had been stripped from the company, to ensure their entitlements.
So far this has not occurred, forcing SimsPartners to launch the Supreme Court action.
NUW State Secretary Antony Thow said while John Schulz had made promises regarding entitlements, it was his actions that mattered and his stripping of the company assets meant the businesses never really had a chance.
Thow said Schulz had the chance to rectify this by handing back the assets, such as the titles to the land where all three factories are located – which he currently holds in private family trusts – however he had so far refused to do so.
“When John Schulz and the Huon Corporation bought these three factories from Nylex at the end of last year they effectively signed their death warrants,” Thow said.
“These companies never had a chance to succeed, when Schulz systematically stripped Huon of its assets, leaving it with little working capital to continue operations.
“More than 600 workers have had their lives shattered by one person’s actions and it is time John Schulz took responsibility for his actions and did the right thing – hand the land back to the workers and help them get on with their lives.
“He should make good on his promise – which he has repeated to me numerous times in the past few weeks – that all workers would receive 100c in the dollar of their entitlements. Well at the moment there is no money in the bank, so if John Schulz was genuine he would hand back the assets and allow the administrators to pay these hard-working people what is rightfully theirs.
“It is an appalling state of affairs that these workers have had to head into court to try to force John Schulz to do the right thing.
“These workers have done nothing more than work hard to keep these companies afloat for more than 30 years and this is the thanks they get.”
For further information please contact:
0401 548 340
Last modified 2006-07-19 06:00 PM
