Calls to add migrants, retirement payments to the compensation scheme of long -term workers

When an American Kitsch restaurant in the Melbourne suburbs closed without ceremonies, their waiters and the chefs were due to an amazing amount of $ 230,000 in unpaid wages, annual licenses and retirement.

The second chef Jisan Palikhel remembers having done the job and finding an eviction warning at the front door screwed.

At that stage, Jisan believes that he was owed seven weeks of payment, at least 100 hours of annual license and months of retirement. The calls fricse to their boss were unanswered, and the emails recovered.

“I was totally surprised,” says Jisan.

The fortune of American Social was even worse on paper. The liquidation documents show that it collapsed in 2023 with $ 1 million in debts and zero assets, which makes the recovery of cash for your staff basically impossible.

Fortunately, many of the American social staff were eligible for a scheme administered by the government that returns the cash of the workers when their employers collapse without hope of debt recovery.

“A union helped me receive an email to make a claim,” says Jisan about discovering the guarantee of fair rights (FEG).

What is the guarantee of fair rights?

The FEG was founded decades ago, after a textile company chaired by the brother of the then Prime Minister John Howard Collapsed, due to the workers $ 11 million.

Today, the government financed scheme is paying hundreds of millions a year.

FEG has an instrument in which he tries to recover what he has paid to workers in the company’s liquidators, but the data show that it collects much less than progress, which means that it operates with a net loss for taxpayers.

In 2024-25, FEG payments are expected to explode more than $ 300 million, thanks to some massive collapse companies such as Mosaic, the retail empire that owned Ríos, Noni B and Katies.

The thousands of mosaic personnel are only owed more than $ 21 million.

Other large recent collapses covered by FEG include the construction company, Richstone, which collapsed in 2023 with unpaid rights to more than 100 workers.

Peter (not his real name) is one of them.

After requesting FEG, Peter ended up obtaining around $ 30,000 after taxes. ABC News confirmed that another 114 of their former co -workers were also paid a total sum of just under $ 2 million.

“It was very comforting,” says Peter.

However, as Peter discovered, FEG would only cover his missing wages and his annual unpaid permits.

He did not cover his thousands of dollars in missing retirement, or the salaries that he had also been sacrificing salary at his retirement fund.

“When I put my paperwork, I thought it would have been covered (for my retirement) for the guarantee of fair law,” says Peter.

Peter is now in Limbo, hoping that Richstone’s liquidators try to recover the cash that the company was due before collapsing, and then paying the creditors, including their own workers.

This judicial action could take years, and there is no guarantee that any recovered money will cover the approximately $ 1 million of Richstone in missing retirement, owed in several entities and restructures.

“I have no hope at all,” says Peter.

ABC News has not been able to contact Richstone bosses directly or through their receptors.

FEG is not covering migrants either

Almost at the same time that Peter was requesting FEG for the collapse of Richstone, the 10 chefs and waiters of American Social were also putting their paperwork.

Nine of them ended up obtaining $ 67,000 among them, confirmed ABC News.

Except Jisan, that has nothing.

“I was, as, totally depressed. I was working full time, paying taxes,” he says.

The Jisan de Feg letter of denial was reduced to a simple fact: the cook born in Nepalés is a migrant in a visa.

Unlike their former colleagues, who are residents born in Australia or permanent, who made it inelagible.

ABC News has not been able to locate the former head of Jisan to comment, and the receivers documents show that the liquidators had the same problem. Jisan has no real hope for his debts in addition to a change of opinion of FEG.

A community legal center that has been helping Jisan with his claim is asking for a change before this year’s federal elections, predicted for May.

“Unfortunately, the guarantee of fair rights is not fair or a guarantee for the more than 1.5 million workers with temporary visas in this country,” says the executive president of the Migrant Workers Center, Matt Kunkel.

“Retirement should (also) be within the FEG. What we see here quite frequently is that retirement is not paid, and is not paid for a long time.”

What is the review review?

Now the government is reviewing this long -term scheme.

The Department of Employment and Relationships in the workplace, which is directed FEG, is celebrating this review after concerns about the doubtful corporate behavior that moves the cash of employees before the companies collapse.

This includes companies that are structured to separate the assets from the business arm that employ workers, or companies that move away the assets before Resurgir, known as Phoenixing.

The department says that 43 percent of all workers statements that they paid under FEG left the company collapses with worrying structures. However, the minister responsible for the scheme would not reveal specific examples.

“We want to eliminate dishonest players in the company’s transactions and insactions to prevent their responsibilities with taxpayers in general,” says Employment Minister Murray Watt.

The FEG review will continue to the next federal parliament, presenting an opportunity for the main parts to renew their promises around the scheme and how it could adjust.

The Minister of the Labor Government also says that he has “received many comments” from the unions and workers that retirement must be added to the FEG.

It is not clear if this could see the retirement added to FEG under a re -elected Labor Government. When it comes to other change calls, the senator says that migrants are not a priority.

Meanwhile, opposition employment spokeswoman Michaelia Cash says that the party supports the current review of the scheme, and will wait for any recommendation before considering them.

The green ones, which are not expected to have the government but could force problems if they have a balance of power, want FEG to cover the retirement and visa holders.

“Australia is proud to be the land of a fair for all,” says Barbara Pocock of the party senator.