Workers seize equipment
ADELAIDE — Workers from a bankrupt crane hire firm have hidden hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment to guarantee that they will receive their redundancy payments.
The workers seized two 50-tonne mobile cranes, a semi-trailer and a prime mover after the company went into provisional liquidation on July 21.
The 25 workers of the SES Group's crane hire operations have not been paid their annual leave or long service leave entitlements and are owed around $250,000.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union organiser Dave Thomason said that discussions including the Builders Labourers' Federation and the Transport Workers Union were under way, creating the possibility of a stoppage in the crane hire industry, particularly if threats to involve police in the dispute are carried through.