Many of those owed money by collapsed disability services provider Radius hoping to find out whether they would be fully remunerated left a creditors meeting disappointed on Thursday.
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Most creditors declined to speak to the media, but one summed up the mood in terms of the information provided.
“A whole lot of nothing,” he said.
For Australian Education Union organiser Michael Claven, who was representing “a significant number” of employees at the meeting, the picture was not much clearer.
“A report has to be developed by the administrators and that comes back to a second meeting of creditors within a month or so and we’ll get a fuller picture of what assets and liabilities the company actually has access to, so we just have to wait and see how that all pans out,” he said.
In the meantime, Mr Claven raised the prospect other disability services in the area could fall victim to a similar set of circumstances, saying Radius’ closure had already “sent shock waves through the community”.
“This is a most regrettable matter for everyone [involved], particularly the clients involved and the supported employees and certainly for the Bendigo community,” he said.
“We’re very concerned that his could be a precursor for other disability services and we’re very mindful that this not happen again.”
Bur Mr Claven said some light was shed on how the situation came to such a conclusion.
“Quite clearly it was put to us that some of the information that they based their forward planning on didn’t materialise and that’s regrettable for all concerned,” he said.
On that front, Dorothy Paterson, the mother of one of Radius’ supported employees was in a forgiving mood.
“I'm sure the board did what they thought was best,” she said.
“Maybe it wasn't best but we’ve got to move on.”
But one employee, who gave his name only as Chris, was less generous, saying administrators had “acknowledged that there were major bad decisions made by the board and former CEO”.
“I'm still waiting for my redundancy and they’re not quite sure when they’ll be paid out, so that could be in a month or two’s time and you’ve just got to figure out how you live between now and then, and whether or not you get your redundancy,” he said.
“I’ll feel confident about that when I hear the slap of the chequebook.”