Bathla collapse leaves workers chasing unpaid wages in Australia

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Bathla collapse and unpaid wages

Highlights

Bathla entered voluntary administration in August owing at least $3.4 billion, with employee-related creditor claims estimated at about $6 million.
Former Bathla workers are facing financial hardship and uncertainty, with some owed tens of thousands in unpaid wages and entitlements and visa holders at risk of losing residency.
Teneo blames outdated payroll systems for delays in entitlement calculations and is seeking early Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme access, targeting approval by early December.

Employee claims and insolvency timeline

As first reported by ABC News, former Bathla employees say they are owed amounts ranging from several weeks of pay to tens of thousands of dollars after the developer entered voluntary administration in August owing at least $3.4 billion.

Jagdeep Singh, a former stormwater engineer who worked at the company for nine years, estimates he is owed $80,000 in unpaid wages and entitlements. He is among workers seeking clearer and faster information from administrator Teneo on what they are owed and when calculations will be completed.

In a September affidavit filed in the NSW Supreme Court, Teneo senior managing director Andrew Scott put employee-related creditor claims at about $6 million, covering wages, superannuation and leave entitlements. More than a dozen former employees also told ABC they experienced irregular wage payments and missing pay slips in the months before the company entered administration.

In emails seen by ABC, the administrators acknowledged a significant delay in calculating employee entitlements, citing hard-copy employment contracts and an outdated payroll system that requires manual adjustments and additional review processes.

Pressure on workers and visa holders

Former staff say the collapse is creating financial hardship as they struggle to secure full-time work, forcing some to use savings or borrow from friends and family during a difficult economic period.

For temporary employer-sponsored visa holders, the fallout is broader than lost income. One former worker identified as Arjun, who was recruited from overseas on a subclass 482 visa, said he is worried he may have to leave Australia after losing his job and is still seeking an employer willing to sponsor him, while he estimates he is owed about $10,000 in entitlements.

Another former employee, Kelly, said the collapse has cast doubt over her employer-sponsored permanent residency application. She estimates she is owed about seven weeks of wages, unpaid superannuation and other entitlements after working at Bathla for almost two and a half years.

Workers generally can access the federal government's Fair Entitlements Guarantee only when an employer enters liquidation, not while it remains in administration. Teneo said it is working with the federal government to secure early access to the scheme and is hopeful approval will be granted by the beginning of December.

University of Sydney law professor and insolvency expert Jason Harris said employees retain rights to employment records and payroll information even when a company is in administration. He said insolvency laws give employees priority over ordinary unsecured creditors for certain unpaid entitlements, although recoveries still depend on the funds available.

Our earlier article on early-career job hopping highlighted research showing that changing employers can be a major driver of wage growth and a way for workers to find better long-term job matches. It also noted the tension between cultural skepticism about short tenures and evidence that mobility can improve pay progression and stability—context that becomes especially relevant when workers are forced into sudden job searches after an employer’s collapse.

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