TWO of the gold coast’s most acclaimed eateries owe $40,000 superannuation to 44 staff who may never get it back.
Documents lodged with the corporate regulator also show they owed $717,352 in tax, $17,000 to American Express and that the companies loaned almost $200,000 to a related company before they went into liquidation last week.
Despite the failure of the companies behind the popular Commune Cafe at Burleigh and Etsu Izakaya, run by respected restaurateurs Mitch and Nerissa McCluskey, both venues opened without skipping a beat as the businesses were sold to new companies, also owned and operated by the McCluskeys, before the old companies collapsed.
Reports lodged by the couple, who are each a director of one of the failed companies but jointly own both, declared neither company had any equipment, property, motor vehicles or stock when they failed.
They show Commune had just $26.99 in its bank accounts, while Etsu had $2.08 when it went into liquidation.
The McCluskeys declared that Commune owed $9812 in superannuation to 23 staff while Etsu owed $30,362 to 21 staff.
Unlike wages and other entitlements, superannuation owed by failed companies cannot be claimed from the government by employees, who must line up with other…
