Leighton staff feeling the pain from Spain in entitlements dispute

THE Spanish masters at construction giant Leighton could have a string of legal claims on their hands after apparently playing hard ball on employee entitlements as part of the cost-cutting regime ordered by CEO Marcelino Fernandez Verdes.

The Spaniards, who hail from a country racked by high unemployment where pay is far lower than in Australia, are said to have been astonished by the pay rates and employment packages enjoyed by some in Leighton’s management ranks.

As Fernandez Verdes cut a swathe through the finance departments of Leighton’s head office and its various operating companies, it is understood he insisted on paying only contractual entitlements to a number of staff shown the door — despite some of them having years of service under their belts.

Some have simply been paid out their notice period with no redundancy, which is expected to lead to a number of legal cases.

Those replacing them have far less generous packages.

Confusion also surrounds the status of former chief general counsel John Morton. A fortnight ago, Morton’s job was handed to former Dexus heavyweight John Easy. There is speculation the first Morton knew about his fate was when he turned up to work on Monday morning to be told that Easy was taking his job. Morton is said to be on ‘‘stress leave’’.

Fare go for Uber

WHO owns the Australian arm of alleged illegal taxi operator Uber? And where does the money go when you book a car with the company? Spokeswoman Katie Curran won’t say. But here’s what Margin Call has figured out.

While documents filed with ASIC show that Uber Australia’s ultimate holding company is Uber International BV, of the Netherlands, Dutch documents show this is not correct because since at least June 11 last year Uber International BV has been owned by Uber International CV, of tax haven Bermuda.

Complicating matters, the Bermudan register shows that Uber International CV was registered on February 11 — this year. Knowingly filing false information with ASIC is a crime punishable by a fine of up to $22,000, jail of up to five years, or both. But no doubt it’s just an oversight and now that Margin Call has brought it to Uber Australia’s attention, directors Zubair Bangash, Karen Sammis and Axel Martinez will rush to fix it up.

Confusion also surrounds where the Australian revenue goes, always a topic of interest for the tax office. Uber’s terms of service say customers deal with Uber BV, in the Netherlands. But the company number given actually belongs to Uber International BV. Further, according to a customer, the money actually goes direct to Uber HQ in sunny San Francisco. All very mysterious.

Court Shorten

OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten had a minor mishap on ABC radio yesterday. Talking about trade talks with China, Shorten started in on “the new tariffs that China placed on our iron ore”.

Really? Host Chris Uhlmann piped up: “What tariffs on our iron ore? I am aware of ones on coal but not on iron ore.”

“You’re right,” Shorten admitted.

Terror-ific name

IT’S normally fine to mock companies that change their name to something meaningless.

Remember when ailing steelmaker OneSteel became ailing steelmaker Arrium? Or when bits of Amcor were packaged up as Orora?

But it’s hard to fault charity Isis Group’s decision to move to ditch its terror-invoking moniker in favour of the somewhat more neutral Adara Group, which founder Audette Exel hopes will take it “decades into the future”.

The charity had its old name for more than 15 years before it was hijacked by the terrorist group variously known as ISIS, ISIL or Islamic State.

As if dealing with the fallout from the NSW ICAC’s investigation into crooked pollie Eddie Obeid wasn’t enough.

Until August last year, Adara’s board featured former White Energy and Krispy Kreme boss John Atkinson, but he resigned after being found corrupt by ICAC.

Otherwise, Adara boasts a heavyweight board: alongside Exel sit Richard Deutsch, who was a top man at PwC until just last week,Laini Liberman, and Minter Ellison partner Richard West.