Monday, 15 September 2014 KordaMentha Restructuring partner Craig Shepard said only 868 of Bluestone’s 4000 employees and labor hire staff had filed claims for the entitlements This was despite advice about how to make the claims being sent to all employees and labor hire staff four weeks ago. Mr Shepard said the entitlements were being paid under the Commonwealth’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee Scheme (FEG), which provides entitlements when companies in liquidation have no cash to cover them. The money is paid to KordaMentha Restructuring who pass it on to the former employees. But the money does not flow until the employees make a claim to the Federal Government. Mr Shepard said less than 25 per cent of Bluestone’s workers had made a claim in the four weeks since they were advised to do so on 15 August. The Bluestone workers are owed a total of about $12.3 million in entitlements. The FEG scheme pays all basic entitlements, including unpaid wages, regular allowances, annual leave, long service leave, pay in lieu of notice and redundancy. FEG does not cover unpaid superannuation contributions. Mr Shepard said: “The FEG has been very quick to respond to the claims. Sometimes the process takes months but in this case the money for the first 99 workers is already flowing after only five weeks and this will be paid to the workers in the next few days. KordaMentha Restructuring cannot make the applications on behalf of the workers – it must be done themselves.” The best way to lodge a claim is online at FEG Online Services at https://extranet.deewr.gov.au/feg Bluestone, based in Melbourne, was an Australian global company specialising in labour hire, mining services and professional recruitment. Its RecCo subsidiaries were a major supplier of labour and services in the Hunter Valley of NSW. KordaMentha Restructuring was appointed administrators and liquidators of the employing companies on 4 August. More than 90 per cent of the workers were offered jobs in other companies within two days of the beginning of the administration. Media enquiries: Michael Smith 0411 055 306