http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/otmushrooms/files/Unofficial/AgePic.bmp Picture: JOE ARMAO Former OpenTel project manager Paul Davis and former software engineer Nick Bishop say a deed of arrangement cuts across the Government's employee entitlements scheme. OpenTel staff on hold for their entitlements By Richard Salmons June 19 2003 Open Telecommunications went into administration a year ago next month, but former staff are still involved in a dispute they say highlights flaws in the Federal Government's employee entitlements scheme. Almost 100 former OpenTel staff are awaiting the outcome of their claim under the taxpayer-funded General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme. According to former OpenTel engineer Paul Davis, the problem is that the company's administrators implemented a deed of company arrangement to facilitate returns to creditors. And it is this that has thrown up obstacles to staff get- ting payments through GEERS. Mr Davis, who is acting as a spokesman for the employee group, said: "GEERS only truly protects employees' entitlements in the case of insolvency, whereas in the case of a deed of company arrangement, GEERS will only advance payments that are scheduled under the deed." The deed, agreed to by a meeting of the OpenTel creditors committee last October, would pay current and terminated employees 43¢ in the dollar, and unsecured creditors 20¢ in the dollar, according to the administrator, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. The administrator said that if the company had gone into liquidation, former employees would have received 31¢ in the dollar, current employees 21¢ and unsecured creditors nothing. GEERS was introduced in 2001 as a replacement for the Employee Entitlements Support Scheme. It was intended to let employees recoup a greater proportion of entitlements they might otherwise lose when an employer becomes insolvent. Under GEERS, employees of insolvent companies can apply to receive all unpaid wages, accrued annual leave and long service leave, accrued pay in lieu of notice, and up to eight weeks' redundancy pay. The scheme is funded by $70 million from the federal budget and to date has helped compensate employees in more than 1000 businesses. This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/06/18/1055828380314.html