Woes mounting up for United Workers Union; George Tomeski’s worrying history

National United Workers Union president Jo Schofield. Picture: AAP

A pending class-action lawsuit isn’t the only trouble threatening the leadership of the United Workers Union.

Margin Call has learned that WorkSafe WA is in the midst of its own investigation into the UWU, although its administrators in the national office don’t seem to know all that much about what’s going on.

We revealed over the weekend that Adero Law principal Rory Markham had been meeting with UWU employees and debriefing them of politically explosive allegations concerning bullying and retaliatory conduct by senior officials.

National UWU president Jo Schofield told us she didn’t know anything about Adero’s involvement, and still doesn’t, but she certainly would be apprised of the allegations documented in various complaints.

One of which we’ve been given. A UWU representative filed a “Provisional Improvement Notice” with Schofield and national secretary Tim Kennedy in June alleging “ongoing bullying and intimidation of staff in the WA state office”.

The document named senior officials Carolyn Smith and Rory Lambert as the alleged perpetrators, and said workers were “feeling so unsafe they do not want to work in the office building for fear of coming across those who have bullied and intimidated them”.

Sounds oddly thuggish for a union. Aren’t they supposed to protect workers from this type of workplace misconduct?

Schofield told us on Monday that WorkSafe WA investigators twice dismissed these complaints because – as a matter of technicality – they didn’t contain “specific allegations of bullying, harassment, and failure to address psychosocial workplace hazards”.

An appeal against that decision was also dismissed, Schofield added, indicating the unpleasantness had been settled; she said the union subsequently requested that staff “come forward with any allegations” and – surprise, surprise – no one said a word.

All wrapped up then? Not quite.

WorkSafe WA inspectors are still elbow deep in the muck of the UWU, according to our inquiries, suggesting that concerns about its workplace hazards are far from over.

The Italian job

Amid all the reporting on Melbourne property developer Paul Chiodo and the absolute palaver that’s become of Keystone Asset Management is a wrinkle of perceived conflict involving the administrators and receivers at Deloitte.

For a primer: Deloitte had been engaged to restructure Keystone earlier this year, which meant that its people were given access to piles of emails and privileged documents and banking records – including that of Chiodo himself, a Keystone director.

Fast forward to August and the Federal Court appointed Deloitte’s Jason Tracy and Lucica Palaghia as receivers, a little surprising given their restructuring role – but OK. This while Keystone directors had separately engaged KordaMentha as administrators, which lasted all of a week before a judge ordered KM be removed and Deloitte’s Tracy and Palaghia be appointed instead.

Melbourne property developer Paul Chiodo says Deloitte is ‘now killing deals’ and having ‘zero independence’.

Strange scenario, this; it’s not every day that a receiver is named administrator, too.

Even stranger, however, is that the court doesn’t appear to have been told about Deloitte’s little Italian job.

Margin Call has discovered that Deloitte Italy had been acting for Chiodo and his development company, Chiodo Corporation, as recently as
April on the structuring and financing of a hotel purchase in Venice.

Per a letter written to Chiodo on April 22, Deloitte’s Hospitality Team in Italy, led by Emiliano Russo, were scheduled to provide services in the “closing phase for the acquisition of the hotel JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa” at a proposed fee of roughly $100,000.

We hear that Chiodo Corp ultimately paid $25m for the Venetian hotel, funded by Keystone and advised by Deloitte Italy – but which Deloitte Australia, in its capacity as voluntary administrator, is now trying to scupper by retrieving the deposit paid.

None of which appears to have been disclosed to Justice Mark Moshinsky of the Federal Court.

Contacted for comment, Chiodo told Margin Call that Deloitte had gone from “ruthlessly earning fees” by creating deals and assisting Keystone “to now killing deals” and having “zero independence”. One for the judge to untangle, perhaps?

Tomeski’s new play

A sweet write-up in the Financial Review on Monday for Melbourne-based start-up Helfie.ai, a healthcare gizmo that allegedly uses AI to screen for ailments and diseases. Simply cough into your phone, or scan your face, and the app can check for “indications” of tuberculosis and asthma and interstitial lung disease, even STIs and skin cancer, if you take a photo of a freckle. No test for intestinal health just yet, but one can only pause to consider what might be required of that.

It all sounds tremendously promising for its founders, George Tomeski, Matt Jones and Nick Chang, the latter two having already left the company, meaning it’s just Tomeski running the shop as CEO. He’s on a tear to raise more than $US100m from investors, having apparently raised $US33m already last year, some of that coming in from Chemist Warehouse billionaires Mario Verrocchi and Jack and Sam Gance.

Trouble with Tomeski is that he has form in raising big piles of cash and losing it.

Recall his online gambling business PlayUp, which had forecast billions of dollars in revenue by breaking into the Chinese sports betting market. Impressive list of backers, too: Malcolm Turnbull, Allan Myers KC, David Paradice, Simon Rothery, Robbie Cooke, Bruce Mathieson, ex-Test captain Steve Waugh and commentator Adam Gilchrist. Former NSW premier Nick Greiner was PlayUp’s chair.

All up, roughly $100m was tipped into PlayUp (over seven years) on the promises made by Tomeski and co-founder Luke Bunbury. By the time PlayUp was put into liquidation, leaving creditors scrambling, it had pivoted from sports gambling entirely and been recast as a social media company. Turnbull was one of the few investors to claw back his money, having reportedly converted his investment of up to $1m into debt.

There’s a handy description of PlayUp’s life and times on Tomeski’s LinkedIn profile. It mentions none of the money left owing but does speak to what was raised ($75m) and its purported valuation ($500m).

Tomeski certainly moved on in the years since PlayUp, starting a battery enterprise, Positv, and a VC start-up called Venture-Store. It doesn’t bode well for either that homepage links to both are dead.