Workers at Tomago steel fabrication company AJ Mayr NSW were told their jobs had been terminated yesterday morning, and the impact on the Hunter coalmining industry could be disastrous.
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About 40 employees were told by owners Kumar and Nilhan Perumal the company would be under administration last night and work on its $800 million contract for Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group (NCIG) would remain unfinished.
Work on the 800-tonne job had been going for five months and was four to five weeks from completion when workers left the site.
Contracted to the John Holland Group, the steel fabrication company is building a major piece of NCIG's third coal-loader, expected to take exports from its Kooragang Island operations from 33 to 55 million tonnes of coal a year.
The father and son owners of the company did not return calls from the Newcastle Herald, but it is understood they held meetings with John Holland and NCIG representatives in the afternoon.
Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union state organiser Daniel Wallace said the owners needed about $1 million to complete the job and John Holland would have to consider that offer.
"It could cost John Holland a lot more than that to pack up the whole operation and get the work finished somewhere else," Mr Wallace said.
"Any delays could also impact down the line at NCIG, where they are waiting for this to be finished so they can get the coal-loader finished on time.
"The workers could be back on site until the job is finished but that would be it."
The owners of AJ Mayr NSW folded a company called AJ Mayr Engineering in February with debts of $3.2 million owing to the Australian Taxation Office and unsecured trade creditors.
Workers told the Herald they were owed two weeks' wages, superannuation dating back to when the new company started and child support payments from 18 months ago.
"On our pay slips they had it showing that our child support payments had been coming out but they weren't getting paid at the other end," one worker said.
"They told us we'd get paid last Wednesday, Thursday and then Friday but nothing has come yet."
Mr Wallace said the owners told him the workers could not be paid until Thursday at the earliest if John Holland agreed to forward payments ahead of schedule.
