Legal hit on dodgy bosses

COMPANY bosses face sharpened laws to ensure workers are paid entitlements under a retaliatory strike in part provoked by Clive Palmer’s business dealings.

The Turnbull Government plans to arm itself with new legal weaponry to unleash upon company directors and office holders whose companies dud workers.

Under the proposed laws, unpaid wages could also be redirected from related business entities that are not insolvent.

Taxpayers were forced to come to the rescue for Palmer’s Queensland Nickel refinery after it collapsed in 2016.

About $ 70 million under the taxpayer- funded Fair Entitlement Guarantee ( FEG) has been paid to about 760 QNI workers. About 400 staff have $ 6 million outstanding.

It is believed the measures were sparked in part by the failure of QNI to pay owed entitlements.

Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer said there was evidence some employers were structuring their affairs to avoid paying entitlements if they become insolvent.

Ms O’Dywer said it meant the taxpayer- funded ( FEG) scheme – a last resort for workers owed wages – was being taken advantage of.

The proposed laws will strengthen enforcement and recovery options, including:

• Penalising directors and others who engage in activity that prevents, avoids or reduces liability for entitlements;

• Strengthening laws to sanction directors and company officers with a record of insolvencies where FEG is repeatedly relied upon; and

• Ensuring recovery of FEG from other entities in a corporate group when fair.

Asked why taxpayers had to cover owed entitlements, Mr Palmer said last night: “It’s a disgrace the administrator should pay for refusing to transfer the workers to our companies and refusing to allow us to fund the business.

“Queensland Nickel paid over $ 700 million in tax; it’s entitled to be treated like all other Australian companies,” he said.

The FEG has blown out from almost $ 71 million in 2009, to more than $ 243 million in 2017.

“Corporate misuse of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme hurts all hardworking Australians, by placing an unfair burden on Australian taxpayers who ultimately bear the costs of those employers improperly relying on the scheme,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

Workplace Minister Craig Laundy said companies that did the right thing had nothing to fear.