Adelaide Exposed Concrete employee claims owed $10k, toxic work environment

A former employee of an Adelaide concrete company that was revealed to owe hundreds of families money has claimed a toxic workplace took a toll on his mental health.

A former employee of Adelaide Exposed Concrete (AEC) says he is owed $10,000 in unpaid wages and super, and claims a toxic work environment left him “mentally f****d up” and on anxiety medication.

The employee, who chose to remain nameless, worked for AEC, for a total of five-and-a-half years but quit in October.

AEC has come under fire from creditors after The Advertiser revealed the company owed approximately $1.7m to households and businesses when it went into liquidation on May 7. The former employee says he is also owed about $10,000 in wages and super.

“I was at AEC for probably five-and-a-half years over two stints” the employee said, adding that he left at first because he didn’t like how he was treated as an employee.

“I did FIFO for a bit and then he called me on a good day for him and a bad day for me and got me back and it wasn’t like it was before.

“I sort of stupidly went back and probably within three weeks of being back there, I was like, this is worse than what it was before.”

The employee said he felt “forced” to make excuses to customers by the owner of AEC, Shane Lynch

“He’d get me to ring him and tell him I had Covid or my lad had Covid,” he said.

Keith Diener after paying Adelaide Exposed Concrete to repair a retaining wall and re-landscape his lawn. Pictures: Ben Clark

The employee said making excuses to clients and working 12-hour days took its toll.

“I ended up on f*****g anxiety tablets because of it, I was mentally f****d,” he said.

“Then you’d go and speak to clients and you’ve got to remember, OK, I rang that person last week, what was the excuse I used?

“You sort of try and remember what excuses you used so you didn’t get caught out. I just don’t understand how it got to this point.”

Along with excuses, the employee also claims that AEC was a toxic work environment.

Gian David with his partner, Rizelle Fontelar at their home in Adelaide’s south, where they are 15k out of pocket after Adelaide Exposed Concrete went bust. Picture: Matt Loxton

“Mid last year AEC probably would’ve had 12 employees — it had five or six when I left, and everyone left for the same reasons,” the employee said.

More than 122 creditors have been listed as money owed by AEC.

Newly-engaged Adelaide couple Rizelle Fontelar, 24, and Gian David, 26, hired AEC, in June last year to build a retaining wall, concrete their driveway, and lay side paving at their newly-built southern suburbs home.

After paying nearly $15,000 to AEC, the job was never done, the couple were forced to divert their wedding plans to spend an additional $15,000 to finish the work.

Woodcroft resident Keith Diener was in a similar boat, paying $8,373 for a landscaping and retaining wall job.

Now he fears he’s “not going to see a cent”.

Mr Lynch did not provide a comment.

Originally published as Adelaide Exposed Concrete employee claims owed $10k, toxic work environment