Workers, ATO owed thousands as cleaning company collapses

A company director has blamed a union for a $1m debt, but a former worker has been fighting to recoup more than $20,000 owed to her.

A SOUTHEAST cleaning company director has blamed CFMMEU worksite practices for sending the business broke with almost $1 million of debt.

Construction Cleaning Group (Qld) Pty Ltd, trading as SEQ Construction Cleaning, is in liquidation, owing $756,672 to the Australian Tax Office.

The company also owes $160,000 to Builders Discount Warehouse at Springwood.

SEQ Construction Cleaning launched in 2014 and offered building site, high-rise, event and hazardous materials cleaning.

Liquidator Daniel Moore of BCR Advisory said early investigations indicated the company’s sole director, Jeremy Bell, blamed the construction union for his business’s downfall.

“The company has gone into liquidation basically because they were dealing with construction sites that are under CFMMEU union rules which means the costs blow out because of union practices,” Mr Moore said.

Mr Bell, 37, declined to comment or expand on his claim.

CFMMEU Assistant Secretary Jade Ingham dismissed Mr Bell’s comment to the liquidator that the union was to blame.

“From an industrial relations side, it (construction) is the most regulated industry in the country,” Mr Ingham said.

Mr Bell said, in a report handed to the liquidator about Construction Cleaning Group’s financial activities, that the company owned no assets or owed employees money.

But Anjali Kaur, who worked as a contractor for Mr Bell’s cleaning group from September 2016 to October 2017, says she has been fighting to recoup about $26,000 that she claims is owed to her.

“Sometimes his staff would say that he is away for holidays,” she said.

“His wife always said she would ‘pay this evening’, but never did.”

Ms Kuar said because she was a contractor, FairWork Australia could not help and a solicitor became too expensive.

“We gave up at the end as we didn’t have money to look after our family,” she said.

Mr Bell declined to comment on the situation.

The Courier-Mail understands a dispute erupted between Ms Kuar and Mr Bell about damage to glass on a building site.

Mr Bell blamed Ms Kuar’s employee for the damage and suggest she seek payment for the job from her insurance company.

Emily and Jeremy Bell. Mr Bell's Construction Cleaning Group is in liquidation.

Mr Bell is now involved in Kingdom Entrepreneurs, a company established for businesses “to operate in the supernatural” and give thanks to God, where his wife is a director.

“Kingdom Entrepreneurs was birthed out of a desire to encourage other Christian business owners and leaders to put first the kingdom of God,” its website notes.