Federal Member for Hume Angus Taylor has secured the pre Christmas payment of outstanding wages for employees of National Engineering at Young.

The steel manufacturer National Engineering went into voluntary administration on 28 October 2013 leaving some 38 employees without a job. Subsequently the company moved into liquidation on 3 December 2013.

“This has been a stressful time for staff and their families. But after repeated representations to the office of the Minister for Employment and liaison between the Department of Employment and the insolvency practitioner over the period of administration, we finally have some good news,” Mr Taylor said.

“More than $550,000 has been approved under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee for unpaid wages, annual leave, long service leave, payment in lieu of notice and redundancy pay.  Payments will be received by Christmas for the 26 employees whose claims were lodged and able to be assessed over the past week.  The Department of Employment has indicated remaining claimants will be assessed and finalised in January.

“While it’s been a hard hit for these local families so close to Christmas, I am delighted that we have secured a payment for the majority. It was not looking possible a couple of weeks ago, but we didn’t give up. We continued to lobby the Minister’s office and the Department to expedite the matter and now we have a great result.

“I encourage those employees who have not yet lodged a claim to do so. Details are on the Department of Employment’s website http://employment.gov.au/fair-entitlements-guarantee-feg or by phoning the FEG hotline on 1300 135 040.”