A former employee of ACT builder Elliott Hardie Homes has said he was left with $10,000 of unpaid wages after the company collapsed.
The employee, who spoke to The Canberra Times on the condition of anonymity, said he was not paid superannuation for at least six months before the company went into administration, and has been unable to recover the annual leave and rostered days off still owed to him.
In 2025, three companies operating under the Elliott Hardie Homes brand or owned by its directors went into administration.
Together, the companies owe about $4 million to home owners, subcontractors, banks and the Australian Taxation Office.
The former employee said he and his colleagues were made redundant two weeks before Christmas, and were left with no way to claim their entitlements thanks to a corporate restructuring that took place in the months beforehand.
"Literally two weeks before Christmas, all of our leave was gone, all of our holidays, all of our RDOs gone," he said.
The former employee said that in the lead-up to the administrations, he and about a dozen other employees were moved from one of the liquidated Elliott Hardie Homes companies to another company called The Payroll Co.
Both companies have the same director, Mitchel McShane.
However, because The Payroll Co continues to operate, the former employee said he has been unable to make a claim under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee, a federal government scheme designed as a safety net for employees who are made redundant when the business they work for goes into administration.
The former employee said he was told by the liquidator managing the administration that he would be unable to claim his unpaid entitlements under the scheme unless The Payroll Co goes into administration, despite having previously been employed by Elliott Hardie Homes.
"We've tried. We've gone through legal aid, gone through the ATO, gone through the Fair Work Ombudsman," he said.
"None of them have been able to do anything about it. You can't force someone to fold a company."
Last month, The Canberra Times reported allegations that the Elliott Hardie Homes brand was engaging in "phoenix" trading.
Phoenix trading is the process of folding a company to avoid paying its debts after moving its assets into another company which continues to trade.
The practice continues to be common in the ACT, especially in the construction industry, despite the territory government introducing laws in 2016 to prevent it.
The creditors reports for the three companies, which The Canberra Times has seen, show a corporate restructuring took place in the months leading up to the liquidations, including the moving of employees, removal of directors and changing of company names.
The liquidator, Frank Lo Pilato from RSM, recommended that Mr McShane be questioned under oath about the reasons behind the restructuring.
The former employee said he wanted to see Mr McShane be held accountable for the way the administration has been handled, especially as it is common in the construction industry.
"I love the industry and I think there's a lot of good parts of it, but the idea is you go into voluntary liquidation when you get to a point that you can't handle the business," he said.
"You don't start up other companies to take on all the debt.
"He should be held accountable."
The Canberra Times attempted to contact Elliott Hardie Homes and Mitchel McShane for comment. They had not replied by publication.
Timothy Elliott, the director of three Elliott Hardie Homes companies, did not respond to questions, however through a lawyer he denied any allegations of improper conduct.
