Creditors hold meeting in the wake of collapse of builder JM Kelly Group

MICHAEL Hinds was given the best news of his life the day he also found out he’d lost his job. Now he and many of the 230 employees who were laid off are meeting over the devastating collapse of a Queensland building company.

10.30AM: MICHAEL Hinds was given the best news of his life the day he also found out he’d lost his job.

When the JM Kelly Group went into administration on Wednesday, October 17, Mr Hinds was one of the more than 230 employees who were laid off.

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It was the same day his partner Carly told him she was pregnant with their first child.

Mr Hinds was among roughly 70 people who attended the first creditors meeting, now underway at the Leichhardt Hotel, following the company’s collapse.

Luckily, Mr Hinds has since found part time work but said it was stressful to no longer have the certainty of full time employment.

“If you’re a hard enough worker, then you do get calls,” he said.

“But it happens with businesses and there’s no hatred towards JMK.

“They had to do what they had to do. I was still proud to be an employee for them.

“It’s just unfortunate.”