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ABC News
25-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Staff, suppliers of shuttered bakery group All Are Welcome may not see entitlements as calls for super reform continue
Popular hospitality group All Are Welcome owes suppliers thousands of dollars, with question marks over whether this will be paid, after the business closed its doors this month. Tim Williams's business had been supplying the three bakeries in Melbourne with coffee beans and says he is owed $8,000. "We felt fairly deceived going into a new supplier arrangement … there's people who are in the hospitality industry choosing to operate like this, it's not a particularly good reflection on those of us who would prefer to act a bit more professionally," he said. It comes after ABC News revealed staff are owed $243,000 in superannuation and $125,000 in leave entitlements from the bakery, with the total amount owed to the tax office standing around $1.4 million. But there are now questions over whether staff and creditors will see that money, after the business closed this month — two months after it re-opened under a new entity. Multiple suppliers, including Mr Williams, told the ABC they are owed thousands by All Are Welcome. "We didn't get into any of this lightly … we only entered into agreements we were confident we were going to be able to deliver on. Whether Mr Williams will see any of the $8,000 he says he is owed is now in the hands of the administrators. The administrator did not respond to the ABC's questions regarding payments to staff and creditors, but Mr Williams says he was told by the administrators "to expect zero return". "We are a very long way down the list of people who are owed money, $8,000 compared to what is owed to a lot more creditors, the staff, the ATO." When All Are Welcome entered voluntary administration in February, Mr Williams put his hand up to acquire the business. "We did some really detailed research and analysis into the business when we were looking to acquire it out of liquidation, and the result of our analysis is that there was a profitable business in there if it was managed properly." But according to documents shared with the ABC, the business was sold back to the original owner, Boris Portnoy, and he was given 12 months to pay the fee of $100,000 to own the business. "We were pretty disappointed by the complete lack of transparency in the process and then to find out that the business had been sold back to the previously failed director … that was pretty frustrating," Mr Williams said. In a statement to the ABC, Mr Portnoy said: "The Administrators chose to sell me the business as it was better for the staff [creditors] but without any guarantees that the leases would be preserved … The Administrators also took out a security on those assets and allowed me to start repaying in instalments. "It is much easier to sell a business to the operator because I have all the IP and I was willing to purchase it without any guarantees. It requires a lot more due diligence for someone else to purchase the business with a quick timeline. As of June 15 All Are Welcome shut its doors, with its more than 60 staff now out of work. When a business fails, there are mechanisms in place to protect the workers who suffer, under a scheme called the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Recovery Program (FEG). The FEG scheme covers five entitlements: wages, annual leave, long service leave, payment in lieu of notice and redundancy payments (subject to caps), but it does not cover unpaid superannuation. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, who oversees the FEG program, are aware of the liquidation of the bakery and said, so far, it has received one FEG claim. The department noted that money owed to staff of collapsed businesses (including any super) was prioritised ahead of other debts, but that if the funds were not available, the FEG scheme was a "last resort", which doesn't cover super. "Employees (including migrant workers) are entitled to be paid outstanding employee entitlements in priority to other unsecured creditors (and ahead of secured creditors from the proceeds of certain types of assets), provided funds are available in the insolvent estate," a department spokesperson said. "This includes outstanding superannuation entitlements, which, along with unpaid wages, rank ahead of other outstanding employee entitlements. In a statement to the ABC, a spokesperson for the Australian Taxation Office said: "The ATO cannot comment on the tax affairs of any individual due to our statutory confidentiality obligations." The ATO said that it can be harder for the department to recover unpaid super to staff when the business has gone bankrupt, entered liquidation or is under administration or deregistered. Some of those in the superannuation industry believe introducing payday super by the middle of 2026 — where super must be paid at the same time as wages — will help minimise the issue of late or no super for staff. The chief executive of superannuation clearing house, Wrkr, Trent Lund explained some businesses have relied on "bad practices" to get ahead, by using staff super as "working capital". "This is not money that is yours to be spending to help grow your business, there are other methods for that [and] if a bank won't lend you the money, then there's a bigger problem." Wrkr has completed a successful pilot with super fund Rest and MUFG Retirement Solutions, saying businesses need to start preparing for payday super which is due to take effect from July 2026. Mr Lund said these are important changes to protect staff, particularly younger staff and our country's "most vulnerable workers". CPA Australia is urging the federal government to postpone the rollout of the payday super regime for up to two years, to give the superannuation industry and small businesses sufficient time to meet the new requirements. But Mr Lund questions what will change in two years. "We've got to wean people off that working capital as hard and fast as we can. And yes, that might bring some businesses closer to the edge, but they were at the edge." It is not just Australians missing out on superannuation payments — many migrant workers are also not receiving the entitlements they have worked for. Some have called on the federal government to make it easier for Pacific and Timor-Leste workers that come to Australia to access unclaimed superannuation once their visa expires. Rob Whait, a senior business lecturer at the University of South Australia said the ATO holds millions of dollars of unclaimed superannuation owed to workers from the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme. "Around 40,000 PALM workers worked in Australia during 2023," Dr Whait said. "They could have up to $4,000 to $16,000 in unpaid super before their visa finishes, because some of them are nine-month visas and some others are on four-year visas." He said it can be difficult for PALM workers to claim their super as Australia's system is "quite complicated". "It's an old form on an old website that the tax office manages … it's case sensitive, so people enter passwords and their names incorrectly, it doesn't identify them. "There can be problems having the appropriate information … and if they have poor access to the internet, well then they can't do it," he said. Dr Whait has recommended policy reforms to make it easier for PALM workers to have their superannuation directly paid into their own super fund in their home country while working in Australia, or have the funds paid as part of their wages in lieu of superannuation.
ABC News
15-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
All Are Welcome bakeries shut three Melbourne locations with staff entitlements unpaid
Three popular inner-Melbourne bakeries have closed their doors for good on Sunday, with questions about more than a quarter of a million dollars in superannuation owed to staff up in the air. All Are Welcome bakery, which has shops in Northcote, Ivanhoe East and Thornbury, first started in 2016 and recently employed 61 people. The company entered voluntary administration in February this year with more than $1 million in debt, but company director Boris Portnoy subsequently bought the business back under a different entity in an attempt to continue on. The ABC reported in recent days on documents showing staff were owed $243,000 in superannuation and $125,000 in leave entitlements. Mr Portnoy told the ABC he decided to shut up shop this weekend for good after being locked out of the Northcote shop on Friday. He did not comment on what the future might hold for staff waiting for superannuation and leave entitlements, but said he would try to "minimise any harm" as part of a "journey to unwind everything". "This is not a top-down 'big bad boss versus staff who don't have any say'," Mr Portnoy said. "I want to take responsibility for what has happened as far as entitlements. Frustrated former staff members have told the ABC anonymously they were missing months' worth of superannuation payments, amounting to thousands of dollars. Mr Portnoy said the bakeries had "cemented ourselves in our neighbourhoods". "We've had staff [who] have been with us for five years," he said. "We've gone through COVID with everybody. We were able to support the community and the community has supported us during these times." The ABC contacted administrator Hamilton Murphy for comment.
ABC News
08-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Popular bakery owes staff almost $250,000 in super, but 'payday' super could protect workers
Popular hospitality group All Are Welcome owes almost a quarter of a million dollars in superannuation to its current and former employees, with many staff feeling worried and concerned they won't see the money they are owed. The Insta-famous bakery — with locations in Melbourne's Northcote, Thornbury and East Ivanhoe — entered voluntary administration in February this year after accruing more than $1 million in debts. Documents shared with the ABC reveal staff are owed $243,000 in superannuation and $125,000 in leave entitlements, with the total amount owed to the ATO standing around $1.4 million. But, according to the administrator's report, the original director — Boris Portnoy — bought back the business after it entered into voluntary administration, with question marks over whether he will carry over the former business's liabilities. "[It's] quite concerning because I don't have confidence that I'm going to see that money," one former employee told the ABC. The former staff member, who has asked not to be named, says they found out about the lack of super payments in March this year. "When we received a correspondence from the administrators on the 12th of March which had some information about the business, including a section that stated how much money was owed in super, which prompted myself and others to go and check our super accounts properly." They say, despite their pay slips including superannuation contributions, this money was not reflected in their accounts. "It was clear that we hadn't been paid any super payments since around sort of September last year, which is around sort of eight or nine months worth of no super payments," they say. Multiple former staff from the bakery have told the ABC they are each owed thousands of dollars in superannuation. "[I felt] disappointed because we were led to feel quite responsible for the financial situation of the business in that there was a lot of pressure put on all of us as employees in terms of keeping the roster as tight as we can and ordering as tight as we can in order to sort of get the business across the line," said one former worker. "Then to find out that we've been withheld entitlements and hadn't been told, felt like a bit of a blindside." The former employee says there was no communication from the director and when they tried to seek answers from him, nothing was clear. "The explanation of why we weren't paid super was that the business had been struggling financially and that was a method that he was able to use in order to help him with cash flow for the business," they said. But they say nothing was provided in writing, and there was no clear timeframe on when staff may see their money. "I'm not sure what's changed in order to allow him to pay that moving forward in a different manner." During this period, Mr Portnoy also lent himself $235,028 through his family trust, which documents reveal "were made to him in lieu of a wage". In a statement to the ABC, Mr Portnoy said: "As part of the business purchase all outstanding employee entitlements are to be assumed by the new company. "The timing for the payment of the superannuation is being determined by the administrators and we will have a firm timeline after finalisation of the liquidation," he said. The administrator did not respond to the ABC's request for comment. Superannuation advocates have been pushing for "payday super" to help minimise this problem. "Payday super, as it sounds on the tin, is your super paid on the same day as your wages," said Mary Delahunty, chief executive officer of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA). Some employers already do this, but it's not a requirement. If the law changes, everyone will get their superannuation payments at the same time as their wages. If it had been in place, the former staff of All Are Welcome are unlikely to have had such a large amount of super owing to them. Superannuation is not covered under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee, which protects some of the money owed to workers when a business goes under. "They are due to be paid. Unpaid super is an obligation still, even through a liquidation process. And they have a priority sort of setting in the liquidation processes," Ms Delahunty said. She said the most common way people were paid wages was fortnightly, "but monthly is also very common". Payments to superannuation however are most commonly paid either quarterly or monthly. Because of this, some small businesses use superannuation payments as a kind of overdraft or "credit card", helping them to smooth cash flow issues — when the timing of income and payments doesn't line up. Payday super should allow such problems to be seen sooner, she adds. "It would allow for non-compliance with payments to be seen more regularly … [people] could chase it up and the ATO could do their reckoning of that non-compliance in a more timely manner." Essentially, flagging problems before they get bigger. The laws, which are meant to take effect in July 2026, haven't even passed Parliament yet and a lobby group representing accountants is asking for a two-year delay. Richard Webb, superannuation lead at CPA Australia, says the industry supports the intent of payday super and the idea that people should have their deferred remuneration — such as superannuation — paid at the same time as their wages. "But the reality is that the infrastructure and the spend that many businesses will need to do to make sure that their systems are up for it is simply not doable by that time," he argues. Most workers simply receive their pay in their bank account. But for the people on the other end pushing money through the financial pipes, it's a lot harder. The Single Touch Payroll system means, for the vast majority of Australian employees, data is sent to the Australian Tax Office (ATO) at the same time the wages or salary are paid to the employee's bank account. "But in the case of superannuation contributions, there's a lot more data needed to be sent at the same time as contributions themselves," Mr Webb says. "So the cash goes one way, the data goes the other. It meets at an intermediary who mixes the data and the cash together and makes sure they all match up. And then it sends the data the various separate ways to various separate super funds [for individual employees]." That's not the only problem. Many Australians work in roles that attract penalties and bonuses, such as extra pay for unsociable hours and weekend work. Others receive commissions on sales that can take time to be calculated — such as when the product is delivered or when the client pays — making the amount of super for a defined period like a fortnight difficult to accurately calculate. CPA Australia represents 170,000 accountants dotted throughout the world, with members working in different areas of accounting, finance and regulation. Mr Webb agrees the current system needs to change. When it goes bad and employees are short-changed, Mr Webb adds, the delay can make it harder to ascertain the figures owed. "So we think that having them paid near each other makes it a lot easier ultimately for employers, who are paying smaller amounts out rather than one big lump sum at the end of the quarter," he said. "It means that everyone can have everything nicely and neatly bundled in the same place where they can see it." But he doesn't see the industry ready by the mooted deadline of July 1, 2026. Even workers who don't suffer the misfortune of their employer going under could benefit. Due to the effect of compound interest — the returns from investments and interest building on top of itself — just the shift to more frequent payments will boost the retirement savings of millions. ASFA's Mary Delahunty says a shift from being paid superannuation quarterly (once every three months) to every fortnight will add up.
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Book publishers, authors, Donnelly Public Library sue Idaho officials over library materials law
A woman thumbs through a book called 'All Are Welcome' at a read-in event Aug. 10 to protest the passage of House Bill 710, held in front of the Idaho State Capitol Building. (Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) National book publishers, authors, the Donnelly Public Library, and a handful of Idaho parents and students sued the Idaho officials on Tuesday to block the state's library materials law. The lawsuit, filed in federal court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, challenges Idaho's law adopted in 2024 that requires libraries move materials deemed 'harmful to minors,' or face lawsuits. 'We are not getting rid of books': How libraries across Idaho are implementing new materials law The lawsuit alleges Idaho's law violates the constitutional rights of publishers, authors, parents, librarians, educators and students, 'by forcing public schools and libraries to undertake drastic measures to restrict minors' access to books, or face injunction and/or monetary penalty.' The lawsuit alleges Idaho's law, passed by the Idaho Legislature and signed by Gov. Brad Little through House Bill 710, is 'vague and sweeping.' The lawsuit requests the court enjoin the law's enforcement and declare the law unconstitutional and void for violating First and 14th Amendment rights in the U.S. Constitution. In response to the new law, Donnelly Public Library — a tiny rural Idaho library in Valley County — adopted an adults-only policy, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. In the lawsuit, several publishers claim their books have been restricted in Idaho libraries following the law. The lawsuit is against Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, several Idaho county prosecuting attorneys and the Eagle Public Library Board of Trustees. In October, the Eagle library board relocated 23 books after a closed-door deliberation, Idaho Education News reported. Editor's note: This is a breaking news story that will be updated.
