Geelong construction group in receivership, leaving 140 without jobs

A federal government insurance scheme could be the saving grace for 140 sacked workers after a major construction company went into liquidation.

About 140 workers have lost their jobs after a Geelong construction group called in liquidators this week, raising concerns the employees won’t be paid out on wages owed or entitlements.

Advisory and investment firm KordaMentha on Friday confirmed it had been appointed to liquidate Norris Construction Group – which had operated locally for more than 50 years.

KordaMentha partner and liquidator Andrew Knight said the group had called a “creditors voluntary liquidation”, prompting the termination of about 140 employees on Friday.

Norris Construction Group exterior in Gravel Pits Rd, South Geelong. Picture: Alan Barber

“There’s eight companies in the group that have been placed into liquidation, including Geelong Commercial Waste,” Mr Knight said.

“The groups been struggling, like many businesses have been struggling in the construction industry.

“It’s had low-margin contracts and declining sales and unfortunately it’s at the point where we had to terminate all staff today.

“A lot of those are working at project sites across Melbourne, so not necessarily working in Geelong.”

Norris Construction Group did not respond to attempts to contact the company this week.

The company has recently completed work on the Manufutures hub at Deakin University and the Marngoneet and Chisholm Road prisons in Lara, and has worked across Melbourne and southwest Victoria.

Mr Knight said workers concerned about receiving entitlements and owed pay would be assisted in accessing compensation, including via the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) scheme.

Norris Construction Group exterior in Gravel Pits Rd, South Geelong. Picture: Alan Barber

“We’ll be assisting employees with determining their entitlements and assisting them in making claims with FEG,” Mr Knight said.

“We expect they’ll get paid, it will just take a little time to go through that FEG process.”

CFMEU organiser Brendan Pitt on Friday said the 140 impacted workers included machinery operators, concreters, labourers and administration staff, among others.

Mr Pitt said the CFMEU’s “total focus” would be ensuring workers received their entitlements and wages owed.

“It’s disappointing that a local employer who’s been a feature of our construction industry for 50-plus years is going into liquidation,” Mr Pitt said.

“And it’s kind of magnified in regional areas like Geelong, the flow-on effects of these kind of things are not good. It will also impact local suppliers and local businesses.”

Norris employees this week raised concerns with the Geelong Advertiser that they would struggle to be paid out on their entitlements and about two weeks’ worth of wages currently owed.

“We felt like this was going to happen because you would go down to the suppliers and our accounts were on hold because of unpaid bills. It was going on for about eight to nine months,” one employee told the Geelong Advertiser.

The employee said the company told workers on Wednesday to return company vehicles and tools.

According to Master Builders Victoria building and construction accounted for 30 per cent of all insolvencies in Victoria in the three months to December 2021.

MBV chief executive Rebecca Casson said soaring costs for materials, combined with labour shortages was putting pressure on building and construction companies.

“One of the biggest challenges facing Victorian building and construction companies was escalating building product prices and supply shortages,” Ms Casson said.

“Labour shortages will also impact building and construction insolvencies in Victoria over the coming months. This issue is of significant concern.”

Originally published as Geelong construction group in receivership, leaving 140 without jobs