Former CPSTG employees voice frustrations

Former employees of failed reseller CPS Technology Group – collectively owed half a million dollars of entitlements – have told CRN of their frustrations.

The three former staffers who made contact with CRN refuted claims by the company's management that 97 percent of staff had been retained in the "new" CPSTG, which was born on 30 June after an asset sale.

[Related: CPS Technology creditors may receive nothing]

Paul Johansen is owed the largest most amount, according to the list of creditors. Johansen claimed that in his position as development technical lead he was owed $100,000, "so they decided not to keep me".

"I was a full-time employee for 17 years and left with [nothing], as they didn’t pay long-service leave, annual leave or even the [remaining] salary. They also owed my business $20,000," he told CRN.

"It was quite scary leaving there with exactly zero dollars and already weeks since the last pay. I have a mortgage, a wife and three kids – and living pretty much month-to-month on that pay cheque, so it was a worry."

A former executive backed up Johansen's claims, saying terminated employees were not paid "super, long service, expenses or last month's pay". He told CRN that he had to go through legal channels to recover his own entitlements.

The ex-manager said that he left 18 months ago after a disagreement with director Seamus Nash on the direction of the company.

The administrator’s report states that another ex-employee from NSW started legal action in the Federal Court against CPSTG in May. That person's legal team also raised issues of avoidance of staff entitlements, which the administrator says is “consistent” with his own investigations. Johansen told CRN that this particular staff member was owed “$300,000 in commissions”.

Another former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, alleged that one salesperson was owed more than $100,000 in commissions.

CRN attempted to contact Nash for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of writing.

Johansen said troubles started to manifest last year.

"About a year ago, the employees started getting fine payment notifications from the ATO on behalf of CPS. From this we noticed that CPS hadn’t been paying superannuation for about 1.5 years," said Johansen. "CPS then paid a little, but I am still out by about six months. I don’t expect to see this either."

CPSTG has now entered liquidation, meaning that 40 employees – owed $454,690 in total – will be eligible to apply for financial assistance through the government’s Fair Entitlement Guarantee (FEG) scheme.

"I know I should be able to get approximately $50,000 from the FEG for my 17 years of long service and annual leave," Johansen told CRN. "But I still don’t expect that for another six months – I can’t even apply until the liquidation is complete."

Johansen said he is looking forward to a new position with a major telco to take the pressure off, but not receiving entitlements to use as a "nest egg" in between jobs was difficult.

CPSTG also owes more than $5 million of debts to trade creditors, including Interactive Intelligence, NEC Australia and the ATO.