{"id":610236,"date":"2026-04-16T07:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610236\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T07:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T07:40:12","slug":"administrators-tell-liberty-bell-bay-workers-to-take-leave-without-pay-or-be-sacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/610236\/","title":{"rendered":"Administrators tell Liberty Bell Bay workers to take leave without pay or be sacked"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 175 workers at Australia’s only manganese smelter, Liberty Bell Bay, have been told they will be laid off at the end of next week unless they take leave without pay.<\/p>\n

At a town hall meeting with administrators Ernst and Young (EY) this morning on the Liberty Bell Bay (LBB) site at George Town, near Launceston, workers were told that there would be no more money to pay the majority of employees after the current pay cycle, which ends on April 24.<\/p>\n

Only a skeleton crew will be kept on site.<\/p>\n

The news comes as administrators review expressions of interest from a dozen different potential bidders for the smelter, which shut down last year amid the collapse of billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The administrator says 216 LBB employees are owed a total of more than $7.4 million.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (ABC News: Maren Preuss)<\/p>\n

Private equity firm White Oak, a secured lender to GFG Alliance, appointed EY as administrators to LBB in late March, and the 216-strong workforce has been reporting for duty and carrying out care and maintenance.<\/p>\n

Under a last-minute deal between the administrators and unions last week, the workforce was guaranteed wages and entitlements would be paid until next Friday, April 24.<\/p>\n

Australian Workers’ Union assistant national secretary Chris Donovan, speaking on behalf of all four unions represented at LBB, told the ABC he was extremely disappointed in today’s news.<\/p>\n

“This is really the worst-case situation that could happen for these workers,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Not only for the workforce, but for George Town and Tasmania, and might I add Australia as well, because what we’re very likely to see now is the closure of Australia’s only manganese smelter.<\/p>\n

“We’re still waiting on legal advice and waiting on comment back from the administrator about what the next steps are.<\/p>\n

“But, you know, it is up to them [the workers], and they need to make the right decision for them and their family.”<\/p>\n

“The decision that we want, as the joint unions, is for Liberty Bell Bay, Australia’s only manganese smelter, to remain open.”<\/p>\n

Mr Donovan said it was his understanding “there are a number of interested buyers in purchasing Liberty Bell Bay”.<\/p>\n

“I would imagine that a number of those interested buyers have actually put in expressions of interest under the assumption that there is a workforce ready to go. That assumption has now changed because the administrator is now going to lay-off 180 employees.<\/p>\n

“What the unions are calling for is for the state and federal government to offer to support the workers by paying their wages.”\"Large<\/p>\n

The Liberty Bell Bay facility is Australia’s only manganese smelter. (ABC News: Owain Stia-James)<\/p>\n

Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone chief executive Susie Bower told the ABC there was a high level of buyer interest in the Liberty Bell Bay smelter, but it would be much harder for the administrators to sell it without a workforce.<\/p>\n

“I know that securing payroll is the role of the administrator, but I would encourage all levels of government to do whatever they can to secure the workforce,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If you lose the workforce, it’s very hard to restart the business.”<\/p>\n

Ernst and Young previously confirmed workers would be paid wages until April 24, but did not comment on whether they would continue to be paid after this date.<\/p>\n

In Question Time this morning, Tasmanian Minister for Skills and Jobs Felix Ellis said the state government cannot be “paying wages” of LBB employees.<\/p>\n

\"Felix<\/p>\n

Felix Ellis says the state government does not have the capacity to pay LBB workers’ wages. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Deputy leader of the opposition Janie Finlay asked the Tasmanian government if there was capacity to “use the unspent funds that were allocated to the purchase of ore to protect the regional jobs, workers and their families”.<\/p>\n

“Tasmania’s state government doesn’t have the capacity, doesn’t have the balance sheet to be paying wages for every person that’s involved in an administration process,” Mr Ellis told parliament.<\/p>\n

“Parties who are responsible for those businesses, in this case White Oak, need to be meeting their obligations to pay wages in an administration process,” he said.<\/p>\n

Federal Labor member for Bass Jess Teesdale attended this morning’s town hall meeting.<\/p>\n

The ABC understands the federal government has not ruled out contributing funding to Liberty Bell Bay in the future.<\/p>\n

\"GFG<\/p>\n

Sanjeev Gupta is an Indian-born British businessman and chairman of GFG Alliance, LBB’s parent company. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

EY’s report to LBB creditors, filed with the corporate regulator, showed 216 employees are owed a total of more than $7.4 million \u2014 this included wages, superannuation, annual leave, long service leave and other pay.<\/p>\n

“We haven’t received any commitment or a surety that all of that figure would be paid by the administrator,” Mr Donovan said.<\/p>\n

“Our members are extremely disheartened and very sad about the prospect of this happening.<\/p>\n

“This comes at a very difficult time for them, after roughly a year of uncertainty around what the future is going to hold in terms of their employment.<\/p>\n

“And it’s also come at a very difficult time where we see the cost of living pressures continue to rise.”Administrators, employees, unions to meet tomorrow<\/p>\n

In a statement to the ABC, Ernst and Young said approximately 170 to 175 redundancies are necessary to “enable the retention of a small, critical workforce to maintain limited operations at the smelter”.<\/p>\n

It said consultation between employees and union representatives about the redundancies would occur tomorrow.<\/p>\n

“Employees will be provided with the option of taking leave without pay, to enable the faster restart of operations at the smelter in the event of a successful sale,” the statement read.<\/p>\n

“With no further funding available for the company’s full payroll obligations beyond 21 April 2026, [the administrators] need to implement changes to the company’s workforce structure to enable the continued operation of the company while they undertake the sales process.”<\/p>\n

EY said it will “continue to work closely with potential funders to secure working capital funding to support the sales process and retention of the smelter’s workforce.”<\/p>\n

Lots of businesses go under, industry peak body says<\/p>\n

Ray Mostogl, chief executive of the Tasmanian Minerals, Manufacturing and Energy Council, told the ABC that the potential lay-offs were an inevitable outcome of the administration, but the core business at LBB was viable.<\/p>\n

“It’s a terrible situation to be in. It would be great if people take leave without pay if they can afford to do so.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, it’s more saleable with a workforce.”<\/p>\n

Mr Mostogl said workers who opted to take redundancy would be paid their entitlements in the course of the administration, and that the full entitlements were guaranteed by the federal government.<\/p>\n

He did not believe it was feasible for state and federal governments to pay workers wages while the business was in administration.<\/p>\n

“Of course, it would be lovely if someone would do that. But practically speaking, there are lots of businesses under administration every day.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 175 workers at Australia’s only manganese smelter, Liberty Bell Bay, have been told they will be laid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6014,64,63,99,125332,31113,170112,37159,121062,8539,2801,1782],"class_list":{"0":"post-610236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-administration","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-liberty-bell-bay","13":"tag-manganese","14":"tag-manganese-smelter","15":"tag-sanjeev-gupta","16":"tag-smelter","17":"tag-tas","18":"tag-tasmania","19":"tag-workers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610236","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=610236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}