Wednesday, 6 August 2014 The agreement means that the vast majority of Bluestone’s 3500 on-hire staff and 180 employees will be back in work almost immediately. Yesterday, an agreement was reached for more than 330 of Bluestone subsidiary ResCo’s workforce in the Hunter Valley of NSW to transfer to other labour hire companies. This represented more than 95% of the ResCo on-hire workers in the Hunter. The separate agreement reached with Hoban Recruitment last night applies to about 20 sites outside the Hunter in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The Bluestone companies offer a range of services and labour to the private and public sectors. Under the Agreement, Hoban will offer employment to all Bluestone branch office permanent staff. Hoban will also offer a welfare and assistance programme for the staff, including a no-interest loan facility for those affected by the Administration. On-hire casual staff who are deployed in client sites will also be employed by Hoban. As part of the agreement, KordaMentha will work with Hoban Recruitment and the former Bluestone staff, candidates and clients to make sure that a seamless transition is achieved. Hoban will also be granted access to all of Bluestone’s databases, records and domain names. Joint Liquidator and Administrator Mr Craig Shepard said that he was pleased with the Hoban proposal. “Our primary objective has been to minimise disruption to clients, staff and candidates. This agreement will facilitate an orderly transition of employees and client contracts on a ‘business as usual basis’ which is particularly pleasing given the difficult circumstances,” he said. Hoban Recruitment is part of the Beddison Group of Companies and is considered to be one of the largest privately-owned recruitment firm in Australia. The business is long established and supplies blue chip corporations and governments with high quality staff across Australia. Chairman Tony Beddison said: “Bluestone is a broad based staffing service with a large geographic spread and a very loyal client base. Its people have excellent experience and high competency. It is a good fit for Hoban, staff and the clients.” Bluestone Global was placed into voluntary administration on Monday. The labour hire, mining services and professional recruitment company on Monday appointed Mr Shepard and Mr Mark Uebergang of KordaMentha Restructuring following the failure of the Company’s proposed Right issue in May 2014.