It’s been more than four years since a group of Shoalhaven subcontractors began their fight to be paid in the order of $5 million for work undertaken at HMAS Albatross. Yet still the buck is being passed between the Defence Department, which ordered the work, and Lendlease, the lead contractor that signed on Canberra company Hewatt, which went bust in 2014.
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The two organisations have been dancing around the issue ever since and the subcontractors, left out-of-pocket by Hewatt after it went into voluntary administration, are still waiting for their money.
In strictly legal terms, Defence and Lendlease have solid arguments for not stumping up the cash. Both signed contracts that shifted responsibility down the chain – Defence to Lendlease and Lendlease to its subcontractors, Hewatt’s included.
In moral terms, it’s an entirely different story. The subcontractors who undertook work for Hewatt’s for a big government project should be paid, not just for the work they did but also for the time it has taken to get their money.
Imagine the outcry if an ordinary worker was not paid for work done. There would be legal action before the Fair Work Commission and court orders that money owed be paid. Not so for subcontractors, it seems. They have been caught up in cascading web of contractual clauses which means they probably never be paid.
If that seems unjust, it appears even more so following the NSW Government’s agreement to honour obligations to subcontractors caught up similar circumstances doing work on the Pacific Highway upgrade. Regardless of this decision, the Defence Department remains dogged. It still says the subcontractors’ plight is not its responsibility, that it expected the lead contractor Lendlease to ensure anyone it signed up was financially sound.
We can’t imagine for one moment the head of the Defence Department would tolerate working a single day if they weren’t going to be paid, nor the chief executive officer of Lendlease.
As a percentage of Lendlease’s and Defence’s respective overall budgets, the $5 million the subcontractors are seeking is minuscule. The reputational damage over the four years this saga has been running would be far greater.
We believe a way to pay the subcontractors is long overdue. If the NSW Government can find a way to do this, surely the federal government can as well.