Genius Memjet inventor Kia Silverbrook is in hot water again, facing court next month over allegations he underpaid 21 employees at his research and patent application companies by more than $870,000 last year.
According to court documents filed by the Fair Work Ombudsman, engineers, scientists, patent attorneys, patent assistants and patent design assistants at three of Silverbrook’s companies were not paid for weeks or months at a time between February and August last year – with one employee owed $166,914.
The documents allege Priority Matters, which processes patent applications for inventions, underpaid 15 employees a total of $452,997, medical research and development company Geneasys underpaid five employees $362,973, and solar cell research company Superlattice Solar underpaid one employee $55,969.
They were also underpaid on public holiday pay, casual loadings, annual leave entitlements, termination entitlements, redundancy pay and safety net contractual entitlements.
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When employees asked why they were not being paid, Silverbrook allegedly told them the companies did not have enough money to cover the wages.
Geneasys has since entered liquidation after angry employees forced it into court-ordered liquidation late last year in a bid to recover their wages and entitlements, which can only be done once a company is declared insolvent.
The wind-up application against Geneasys was supported by two of the company’s creditors, totalling $2m in statutory demands, and another successful application against another Silverbrook business, Precision Mechatronics, was supported by 46 creditors.
At the time, Silverbrook, who claims to have more than 4600 US patents, said the applications had “worsened the situation and made it very, very difficult to do things”.
“There are people looking for solutions at the moment and the whole thing will be solved in a relatively short amount of time, in a matter of weeks or months,” he said.
It was not solved, and the employees remain unpaid.
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BRI Ferrier was appointed in early February to liquidate both companies and says as the liquidation is non-voluntary it will take some time to sift through the books to uncover Geneasys’ financial position.
Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James says the extent of the alleged non-payments over an extended period of time and Silverbrook’s “failure to rectify them – despite efforts by inspectors to resolve the matter – are significant factors in the decision to place the matter before court”.
Silverbrook faces maximum penalties of up to $10,200 per breach, while Priority Matters and Superlattice Solar each face penalties up to $51,000 for each employee underpaid. Charges against Geneasys are suspended as it is in liquidation.
The Fair Work Ombudsman is also seeking court orders for back-payments to the allegedly underpaid employees.
Silverbrook will face court on May 13.
Kia Silverbrook is Australia’s most prolific inventor, and the brains behind the Memjet superfast inkjet technology now powering inkjet solutions from the likes of Fuji Xerox, Canon, Toshiba, Delphax and Xante.
He lost a court battle two years ago with his US financiers, who subsequently took over the Memjet business and Australian research facilities.
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