Of the 2,700 jobs under threat following the collapse of engineering conglomerate Hastie Group, around 1,200 have been saved so far, the group’s administrator says.
But the future of the other 1,500 remains uncertain, and the administrator says there is little hope of the group’s creditors recovering much of the money owed to them.
“There’s anecdotal evidence that so far in the administration in the order of 1,200 employees have managed to find alternative employment or new employment with Hastie companies,” Ian Carson of the group’s administrator PPB Advisory said at the first creditors’ meetings of the 44 companies within the Hastie Group that were held around the country.
According to a report on Australian Associated Press, Carson says jobs have been saved both through talks with unions and through the sale of five Hastie businesses.
“I think that is good news that 1,200 employees have obtained employment, which still leaves 1,500 employees, but I think we’re heading in the right direction,” he says.
PPB said in a statement on Thursday that Hastie workers would also be granted early access to the federal government’s General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme, which was established to assist workers who have lost jobs and are owed entitlements.
“Normally, it’s accessible when the company goes into liquidation, but the federal government has accelerated that,” Carson says.
Non-bank creditors, whom Carson says are owed around $100 million on top of the banks themselves being owed $500 million, were unlikely to receive the full amount they are owed, though Carson says it is uncertain how much creditors would be see of what is owed to them.
“We would be surprised if the ordinary creditors received any extensive return, when you think that the banks are owed over $500 million,” he says.
