Harts staff receive salary payout

Former employees of theHarts Australasia Groupwill this week finally receive payment of their outstanding salary and leave entitlements owed to them since the group's collapse in October last year.

It is understood that Harts liquidator, John Greig ofDeloitte Touche Tohmatsu, has secured more than $1.1m in payments through the Federal Government Employee Entitlements Redundancy Scheme (GEERS).

Greig says the payments would be made to more than 200 ex-employees of Harts employed across Australia.

The liquidators to Harts group last year lodged a claim under the provisions of GEERS when it was revealed that funds would not be available from the assets of the Harts Group to pay employees' claims.

Greig says a majority of the Harts employees were employed by an asset-less service company within the Harts Group, called Bomilsco Pty Ltd. It is believed that Bomilsco relied on receiving funds from other entities in the group to pay employees.

However, according to Greig, if it wasn’t for the GEER scheme, Harts employees would not have received any of their outstanding leave and entitlements. GEERS was put in place to ensure that retrenched employees were assured of receiving some of their statutory entitlements and would be paid on a timely basis.

The Harts group collapsed in October 2001 owing about $30 million to creditors. Liquidators are continuing work to establish the financial position of the Harts group, including a detailed investigation of the circumstances leading to the group's collapse.