Up to 1,700 jobs have been axed two days before Christmas as a Melbourne-based company that provides security, cleaning and maintenance staff to the public sector and major retailers enters administration.<\/p>\n
MA Services listed Coles, Kmart, Aldi, Amazon, Dan Murphy’s and several AFL clubs among its clients along with a number of local councils.<\/p>\n
It also works with the Victorian government, including by providing security at Melbourne’s Southern Cross Station and Federation Square.<\/p>\n
According to administrators, the company operates in every Australian state and territory.<\/p>\n
The company was placed in voluntary administration on Tuesday, with Jason Tracy and Glen Kanevsky of Alvarez & Marsal appointed to oversee the process.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the administrators said there would be significant immediate job losses and the immediate scaling back of services.<\/p>\n
“The appointment of administrators has triggered breaches of key licensing conditions, meaning the company is unable to lawfully continue certain core functions,” it said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We recognise the seriousness of this situation for the 1,700 employees whose roles are directly affected.<\/p>\n
“As a direct consequence, regrettably, a significant number of redundancies will occur immediately.”<\/p>\n
MA Service provided security guards for several major retailers and in Federation Square. (Facebook: MA Services Group)<\/p>\n
The administrators said they were investigating the circumstances that led to the company’s current position and seeking information from MA Services founder and director Micky Ahuja.<\/p>\n
They said they were working with the federal Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to ensure employees received the support they needed regarding their entitlements.<\/p>\n
“In parallel, we are evaluating a range of options to preserve continuity of services and future employment opportunities wherever possible,” a spokesperson said<\/p>\n
“This includes fielding enquiries from a number of parties that may be interested in acquiring the Company’s assets.”<\/p>\n
United Workers Union (UWU) vice-president Lyndal Ryan said she was furious after hearing the news.<\/p>\n
“[I feel] distressed for all those security officers who’ll be left high and dry just as we move into Christmas and I am angry will all those clients who we warned that this was likely to happen,” Ms Ryan said.<\/p>\n
“They’ve decided to choose a fly-by-night company and that company has flown.”<\/p>\n
Administrators say they explore all options for the future of MA Services and saving as many jobs as possible. (Facebook: MA Services Group)<\/p>\n
Ms Ryan said she was expecting the job losses to be across the country, adding many impacted would be ineligible for the Commonwealth scheme that protects worker entitlements after a company collapses.<\/p>\n
“Most of the workforce are not permanent residents so they’re not entitled to any safety net,” she said.<\/p>\n
“They expected to be paid this last fortnight’s wage. It’s unclear whether they’ll actually be paid for the hours that they’ve worked.<\/p>\n
“It’s just terrible how those workers must be feeling at this moment. Betrayed, I would say.”<\/p>\n
Coles said it had put interim measures in place at its stores as it looked for new security guards.<\/p>\n
“Coles has taken the appropriate steps to prioritise the safety of our team and customers, as well as ensure the continuity of services across the country, as we transition to a new security provider,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
MA Services provided cleaning and security services for the AFLW. (Facebook: MA Services)<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the UWU called on the Victorian government to dump MA Services from all of its security procurement panels after media reports alleged the company had a business relationship with a labour hire firm allegedly owned by a bikie boss.<\/p>\n
At the time, MA Services issued a public statement “categorically denying” any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
The company described itself as having a diverse workforce, including a strong representation of women in senior leadership roles.<\/p>\n
The ABC has contacted MA Services for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up to 1,700 jobs have been axed two days before Christmas as a Melbourne-based company that provides security,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6014,198874,39868,186,43,9618,198873,161790,44,16763,111191,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-366332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-administration","tag-cleaners","tag-collapse","tag-finance","tag-headlines","tag-job-losses","tag-ma-services","tag-maintenance-workers","tag-news","tag-redundancies","tag-security-guards","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}