Union targets Commander leftovers

The Communication Workers' Union of Australia today said it would attend Commander's first creditor's meeting tomorrow, to push its claim for employees of the failed company to be paid entitlements.

Some senior workers were entitled to 80 weeks redundancy pay, before long service leave was even considered, according to Burt Blackburne, assistant divisional secretary for the Communication Workers' Union, which represents some of the 1,300 Commander workers affected when the company put itself into the hands of administrators earlier this month.

Although Blackburne said the union would fight for these entitlements, he said there were no guarantees.

"We've had some high level discussions with Commander," Blackburne told ZDNet.com.au. "We've also met with the receivers."

"The meeting with the receivers was very successful," he said. "They seemed to think there were some people who were interested in buying the company."

Blackburne said the receiver, McGrathNicol, was also positive about the union attending the first creditor's meeting tomorrow, where a committee of creditors will be appointed and an alternative administrator can be appointed if the creditors so desire. The current administrator is Ferrier Hodgson.

The second meeting of creditors will be held on the 11 September when creditors will consider the administrator's report on the company's business, property, affairs and financial circumstances and discuss the future of the company.

Whether employees receive their entitlements will depend on the sale of the company's assets, Blackburne continued. "In the discussions they were pretty keen to sell it intact," he said. "In the meantime it's a pretty nervous time."

"If they sell it and people are offered work in the new company then entitlements could be carried over," he said.