John & Chris refusing to pay e-Mersion staff, here are the facts

#1 · November 13, 2023, 11:56 pm

Quote from Guest on November 13, 2023, 11:56 pm

e-Mersion is still 12 – 18 months behind on ALL superannuation payments.

One staff member is chasing unpaid wages from over a year ago. This is currently in Federal Court.

One staff member chased an unpaid final payment all the way to small business claims court. It took almost a year.

One staff member stopped receiving wages while on paternity leave. After coming back to work and once again not being paid they resigned. All communication from the directors ceased and the employee was subsequently not paid through their notice period nor did they receive their annual leave entitlements or superannuation upon exit. This happened in June and is currently with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Two staff members resigned in July and after working their notice period, were not paid because of an allegation of “serious misconduct.” Details of the misconduct were never given, it was just used as a never ending excuse not to pay. Regardless, even if there was misconduct, the employment law states that their employment can be terminated, but e-Mersion still needs to pay their wages for hours worked, entitlements, and superannuation, none of which they have complied with. This is currently with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

John lied to the News.com.au reporter saying that the Fair Work cases had been dismissed, they hadn’t. The case that was dismissed was done so because it was a stop bullying order which can no longer be enforced after the victim has left the workplace.

One employee handed in notice last month. Once again, John & Chris stopped responding to any communication and stopped paying the employee even though they have continued to work their notice period. This is currently with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

All of the above cases read like they come from the same playbook. John & Chris Iliopoulos, David Jaffe, and Peter Stern have broken Fair Work law, refused to take any responsibility or do the right thing by their staff, and ignored not only multiple staff requests for pay, but communication from lawyers, the courts, and Fair Work. These actions are illegal and exposes the company to litigation and expose our investment to even more bad press. Furthermore it costs the company more money in legal fees and fines. Not to mention the implications & damage this causes to staff that have been with the company for years.

(Admin note: edited to remove identifiable information).

e-Mersion is still 12 – 18 months behind on ALL superannuation payments.
One staff member is chasing unpaid wages from over a year ago. This is currently in Federal Court.
One staff member chased an unpaid final payment all the way to small business claims court. It took almost a year.
One staff member stopped receiving wages while on paternity leave. After coming back to work and once again not being paid they resigned. All communication from the directors ceased and the employee was subsequently not paid through their notice period nor did they receive their annual leave entitlements or superannuation upon exit. This happened in June and is currently with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Two staff members resigned in July and after working their notice period, were not paid because of an allegation of “serious misconduct.” Details of the misconduct were never given, it was just used as a never ending excuse not to pay. Regardless, even if there was misconduct, the employment law states that their employment can be terminated, but e-Mersion still needs to pay their wages for hours worked, entitlements, and superannuation, none of which they have complied with. This is currently with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
John lied to the News.com.au reporter saying that the Fair Work cases had been dismissed, they hadn’t. The case that was dismissed was done so because it was a stop bullying order which can no longer be enforced after the victim has left the workplace.
One employee handed in notice last month. Once again, John & Chris stopped responding to any communication and stopped paying the employee even though they have continued to work their notice period. This is currently with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

All of the above cases read like they come from the same playbook. John & Chris Iliopoulos, David Jaffe, and Peter Stern have broken Fair Work law, refused to take any responsibility or do the right thing by their staff, and ignored not only multiple staff requests for pay, but communication from lawyers, the courts, and Fair Work. These actions are illegal and exposes the company to litigation and expose our investment to even more bad press. Furthermore it costs the company more money in legal fees and fines. Not to mention the implications & damage this causes to staff that have been with the company for years.

(Admin note: edited to remove identifiable information).

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#2 · November 14, 2023, 12:06 am

They did the exact same thing with staff who left Groovetrain. I know of multiple staff members who had to go through Fair Work to receiving their final pay and superannuation discrepancies.

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#3 · November 14, 2023, 12:19 am

what happens now?

no hope of further investment, too embarrassed to face share holders, staff all seeing the writing on the wall and leaving.
Can’t keep maintaining everyone is lying as more people come forward saying they’ve been ripped off by these people.

Can’t wait to see what’s next for these criminals. 🍿

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#4 · November 14, 2023, 2:36 am

Quote from Balrog on November 14, 2023, 2:36 am
Just chiming in for a different perspective.

”Serious breaches”

In a normal setting these threats would be read with anxiety and worry – but knowing that the brothers are absolute crooks having worked with and watched them lie, con and stiff shareholders for years – it’s apparent that they love litigation as a means of intimidation and escaping responsibility or accountability for their own actions.
Actions that have landed the company where it is.

Note that the reasoning behind these “breaches” were not explained at the time, when requested. Staff were suspended without pay, without reason. Conveniently, on a pay day.

Staff didn’t get any sort of reasoning behind these baseless accusations until they had finished their notice period – as a means push back on final payments and entitlements and a clear misdirection.
Best defence is a strong offence.

The new bullshit story that was spun after the mass exodus to the shareholders and anyone else who still had time for John’s nonsense was –

”Our employees have stolen our money, have worked on other projects while on e-Mersion time and are refusing to do handover”.

Let’s be clear – this is absolute bullshit and just another one of John’s gaslighting exercises.
Blame everyone but himself and accuse people of things to generate a smokescreen to exit out the back door with everyones money, siphoned out via ponzi-esque share schemes and directors loans.

Claims of going to the police are nonsense, or if they actually did – they were laughed out of the building.

John couldn’t provide a crime reference number to the news.com.au journalist when she requested it as proof.

Both employee’s that were “suspended” willingly offered to do handovers on multiple occasions, these were just met with silence or further out of context threats because the same offers, queried employee entitlements – so John didn’t want to get stuck in the mud. Head in the sand.

The UberEats accusations are simply more passing the blame, considering Rick’s report shows these expenses were made just as the brothers came back from Qatar and Chris was running around town crying poor.
As they were made on a shared company card, it’s easy for them to pretend it was someone else in the company – SIX MONTHS after the fact to try and argue against legal entitlement obligations. Convenient.

Since none of their scaremongering through lawyers has worked they’ve enlisted…you’ve guessed it….Chris Gourlias to be their heavy through other measures of intimidation. These have included repeated threatening phone calls, voicemails and even impromptu and slightly sad “happenstance” encounters.

The same tactic has been used on more recent staff resignations – emails and requests for confirmation of final pay/entitlements ignored, accusations and blame thrown about and an overall refusal to accept any form of responsibility.

Just chiming in for a different perspective.

”Serious breaches”

In a normal setting these threats would be read with anxiety and worry – but knowing that the brothers are absolute crooks having worked with and watched them lie, con and stiff shareholders for years – it’s apparent that they love litigation as a means of intimidation and escaping responsibility or accountability for their own actions.
Actions that have landed the company where it is.

Note that the reasoning behind these “breaches” were not explained at the time, when requested. Staff were suspended without pay, without reason. Conveniently, on a pay day.
Staff didn’t get any sort of reasoning behind these baseless accusations until they had finished their notice period – as a means push back on final payments and entitlements and a clear misdirection.
Best defence is a strong offence.
The new bullshit story that was spun after the mass exodus to the shareholders and anyone else who still had time for John’s nonsense was –

”Our employees have stolen our money, have worked on other projects while on e-Mersion time and are refusing to do handover”.

Let’s be clear – this is absolute bullshit and just another one of John’s gaslighting exercises.
Blame everyone but himself and accuse people of things to generate a smokescreen to exit out the back door with everyones money, siphoned out via ponzi-esque share schemes and directors loans.
Claims of going to the police are nonsense, or if they actually did – they were laughed out of the building.
1. John couldn’t provide a crime reference number to the news.com.au journalist when she requested it as proof.
Both employee’s that were “suspended” willingly offered to do handovers on multiple occasions, these were just met with silence or further out of context threats because the same offers, queried employee entitlements – so John didn’t want to get stuck in the mud. Head in the sand.
The UberEats accusations are simply more passing the blame, considering Rick’s report shows these expenses were made just as the brothers came back from Qatar and Chris was running around town crying poor.
As they were made on a shared company card, it’s easy for them to pretend it was someone else in the company – SIX MONTHS after the fact to try and argue against legal entitlement obligations. Convenient.
Since none of their scaremongering through lawyers has worked they’ve enlisted…you’ve guessed it….Chris Gourlias to be their heavy through other measures of intimidation. These have included repeated threatening phone calls, voicemails and even impromptu and slightly sad “happenstance” encounters.
The same tactic has been used on more recent staff resignations – emails and requests for confirmation of final pay/entitlements ignored, accusations and blame thrown about and an overall refusal to accept any form of responsibility.

parmenides and Spartan have reacted to this post.

#5 · November 15, 2023, 6:58 am

Despicable behaviour.

With everyone out in the open now the shareholders that can act should act otherwise they are now complicit.

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

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John & Chris refusing to pay e-Mersion staff, here are the facts