An agreement has been reached between Darrell Lea’s owners and the union representing former workers who have been denied about $400,000 in redundancy pay.
On Saturday, the ABC’s AM reported that six Darrell Lea workers could've been denied redundancy payments after shelf company DL Employment, which had hired the workers, was put in liquidation.
Today it was announced that an agreement had been reached after Darrell Lea’s owners and the AMWU spent six hours in negotiationt.
"Darrell Lea has now committed to the AMWU that they will pay 100 per cent of the outstanding entitlements to this group of workers today," the ABC reports the AMWU’s Tim Ayres as saying today.
The entitlements reportedly range from about $50,000 to $90,000.
"It will make a real difference to their lives, the security of knowing these payments are coming through," said Ayres.
Darrell Lea moved manufacturing operations from its former Kogarah site to Ingleburn in 2012, the same year the Quinn family bought the company’s manufacturing operations and brand. Lea had been put into voluntary administration, and the Quinn’s purchase saved 80 jobs.
It was ordered by the Fair Work Commission in January to pay the workers their entitlements, as they could not reasonably be expected to work at the newer factory, which isabout 34 km away.