Recycling 12 sacked

South Geelong workers feel pain of SKM demise

ALMOST a dozen former employees of SKM Recycling’s South Geelong plant have been laid off, in a “kick in the guts” for the workers.

One former worker said he and nine of his colleagues were made redundant on Tuesday, after 12 months of going without superannuation payments from the collapsed recycler.

“Yesterday I was retrenched, or laid off or terminated,” the worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said yesterday. “Everyone out there was laid off.

“We have not been paid super since October last year … we’re waiting to the first of November to see if we’re going to get anything.

“I took a lot of pride in the work I did, only to be treated like a goose. I feel like I’ve been abused.

“Another kick in the guts for its employees and for recycling in Geelong.”

A spokesman for SKM Recycling’s receiver, Kordamentha, confirmed almost a dozen workers from the South Geelong plant had been laid off.

“(There have been) 10 redundancies this week, leaving only a skeleton crew now that all waste has been removed from the site as part of the clean-up program enabled by a $10 million loan from the State Government,” Kordamentha spokesman Michael Smith said.

“There are no entitlements at the moment because there is no money in the company that employed them.

“The employees can get access to the Federal Government’s entitlements guarantee scheme if the company is placed in liquidation. Anyone who is owed money can apply to have the company placed in liquidation, which has happened with some of the other SKM companies.”

Mr Smith said the South Geelong site would be operational in “a few weeks” after maintenance and safety issues had been resolved.

About 5000 tonnes of Geelong’s kerbside recycling has been dumped in landfill since SKM Recycling collapsed in late July, costing the city about $630,000 in additional expenses.

Kordamentha reopened the collapsed waste giant’s Laverton recycling facility earlier this month, allowing kerbside recycling collection to resume in a handful of Melbourne municipalities.

Cleanaway Waste Management last week agreed to buy the collapsed recycler’s assets after acquiring $60 million of SKM debt in August.