OSTWALD FOLDS: 150 JOBS TO GO
OSTWALD Bros’ remaining workers will keep their jobs over the Christmas period, after creditors of the civil construction company voted to liquidate.
Up to 150 staff on nine contracts will be laid off early next year, at which point administrators will sell off assets to try to repay a $62.5 million debt bill.
UP TO 150 Ostwald Bros workers across the Darling Downs and Queensland have lost their jobs after creditors for the struggling civil construction firm voted to liquidate it.
Administrator from PricewaterhouseCoopers Derrick Vickers said employees and contractors would receive nothing until the company officially ceased trading in 2018.
Mr Vickers said in a statement that all employees would see out the remaining nine contracts, which will all finish early next year.
“This means we will be able to provide employment for these people up to and through the holiday period,” he said.
PwC was heavily criticised for a lack of transparency before the meeting by members of the creditors committee, which is made up of 10 different entities and businesses including the
Australian Tax Office.
Subcontractor Vicky Riddick slammed the administrator for a perceived lack of consultation with creditors.
“I don’t think the administrator has done enough for us,” she said.
“I think (we needed) more consultation with the people who are affected – there’s not enough information going out.
“People that we’ve been talking have had no idea of what was going on, other than what we were telling
them.”
A vote to remove PwC as liquidators by several members of the creditors committee was defeated at the meeting.
Ostwald Bros’ directors put the company into voluntary administration in
August after they were handed a $4.2 million debt bill from the ATO.
Mr Vickers suggested the company could have been trading while insolvent for much of the past financial year, in the report to creditors released last week.
❝think I don’t
the administrator has done enough for us. — Vicky Riddick