Long wait for wages for former Club workers

PAULA HULBURT paula@topsouthmedia.co.nz

Former employees of the Club of Marlborough could be waiting months to discover if they will recover lost wages.

Employees are owed a total of $136,965.40 in wages and holiday pay and $19,489.68 for alternative public holidays.

But in their interim report published last week, provisional liquidators at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said no time frame was available yet.

The High Court will decide if the Clubs should go into full liquidation at a hearing on March 10 in Blenheim.

If appointed as official liquidators, the team at PwC will launch a full investigation into former management and the affairs of the club.

In the report, interim liquidators

Malcolm Hollis and Richard Nacey say they will look for any “avenue of recovery.”

“… there will be a full investigation into the actions of management and the affairs of the Club to identify if there are any insolvent transactions, avenues for recovery or breaches of the law which we may refer to the authorities for further investigation.”

The Blenheim Workingmen’s

Club, trading as the Clubs of Marlborough, closed on November 11 last year, ending a 133-year journey.

The building, which was purpose-built at a cost of $18 million in 2007, remains closed, with security and surveillance now in place in to help safeguard the central Blenheim site, the report says.

“Digital assets are also secure and protected from unauthorised access and data breached.”

An inventory and valuation have been done on all chattels with insurance still in place following a review.

But it will be a longer wait for creditors, both nationally and locally, to see if they can recoup losses.

The list of those who are owed money stretches from National power company Genesis to local firms including butchers, florists and the Marlborough RSA.

In the report Malcom says that they expect more creditors to come forward.

“We understand that there are approximately 115 unsecured trade and employee creditors owed approximately $375,583.41 at this stage in the interim liquidation.

“This is only an estimate, and we expect more claims to come through in the coming period.”