Most people would remember the collapse of Ansett Airlines in 2001. Since then, Australian workers have had their entitlements protected by a government program called the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS).

The scheme means that when a company goes into administration without enough money to cover its debts, workers do receive some of their entitlements (eg, unpaid wages, annual leave).

But the scheme has never covered things like superannuation, and only pays part of an employee’s redundancy pay (up to 16 weeks).

In the last 12 months hundreds of workers have been made redundant only to find their company has been stripped of its assets and they will receive far less than what they are owed.

It is too often the case that a company director has re-arranged a company’s assets prior to a collapse so there is no money left to pay what workers are owed.

This happened in March this year at Paragon Printing Ltd in Wodonga, when 145 workers were laid off with over $9 million owing in unpaid wages and entitlements.

This short video tells their story.

Workers have also lost millions at DSI in Albury, Apollo Engineering in Altona, Forgecast Forgings in Mitcham, ACL Bearings in Tasmania, and Metaltec in Melbourne.

This situation has affected AMWU members like Jane Kernaghan, who was made redundant without entitlements after working at Paragon Printing Ltd for fifteen years.

She said her fellow workers feel betrayed by the company director, and let down by the lack of action taken to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse.

“Most of the people have worked here for between ten and 40 years of their life. They’ve given everything. We’ve gone without pay rises and made sacrifices to keep our jobs and keep the company going and this is what thanks we get,” she said.

“If the government stood up for us we wouldn’t be in this position. It’s just wrong.”

You can understand her frustration.

Under federal corporate law, banks and other creditors have priority when recovering a failed company’s debts. After that, there is usually nothing left to pay employees.

In the case at Paragon Printing Ltd, many workers nearing retirement had been making extra superannuation payments – up to 70 per cent of their weekly wage - which had not been paid for three months prior to the collapse.

In this case, the AMWU has successfully negotiated arrangements to have a new owner re-start the business and continue the workers’ existing service entitlements, but it doesn’t always work out so well. And not all employees were able to keep their jobs.

The AMWU believes situations like this are unjust, and laws must be put in place to ensure workers receive 100 per cent of the entitlements they’ve worked hard for, and company directors be made responsible for their actions.

AMWU members have now stepped up our campaign to demand the Federal Government create a National Entitlements system that protects workers entitlements in full and holds company directors to account for their legal obligations to employees.

Visit the entitlements page on the AMWU website to find out what you can do to support our campaign.

*Paragon Print, Canberra, is not in any way associated with Paragon Printing Ltd, Wodonga.