18 July 2019
The back-pay bill grew
The Fair Work Ombudsman recorded that MAdE had repaid $7,832,953 in wages and superannuation to 515 current or former employees for work between 2011 and 2017. Another $16,371 was repaid to nine Jimmy Grants employees. The regulator found problems with salary reconciliations and staff classifications. MAdE entered a court-enforceable undertaking, including a $200,000 contrition payment and annual external pay audits until 2022. This was a regulatory undertaking, not a criminal conviction or a court-imposed fine.
Back-pay and undertaking · Fair Work Ombudsman · 18 July 2019
10 February 2020
The group entered administration
ABC reported the administrators’ appointment to 22 MAdE companies, excluding Yo-Chi. Most venues stopped trading immediately. The administrators cited declining trade and wider trading pressures; the collapse should not be reduced to a single cause. Their announcement said wages and superannuation had been paid up to appointment. That statement did not establish payment of every leave or redundancy entitlement arising from the closures.
29 June 2020 · report published
Government payments did not cover every worker
The Age reported that nearly $1 million had been paid through the federal Fair Entitlements Guarantee to cover part of the group’s employee-entitlement debt. Its reporters interviewed eligible workers who said they had received what they were owed. The same report said at least 27 temporary visa workers had received no payment through that scheme. It cited liquidators’ expectations of limited recoveries from company assets. Those were the circumstances reported in June 2020, not a verified account of each worker’s position today.
Scheme rules checked · 10 October 2026
The safety net has limits
The department’s current guidance says the scheme may cover unpaid wages, leave, notice and redundancy, subject to eligibility and caps. It does not cover unpaid superannuation. At the end of employment, a claimant must have been an Australian citizen or held a permanent or special category visa, among other conditions. These rules explain the distinction between an employment debt and government assistance; they do not establish the final recovery in an individual MAdE claim.
Government safety net · Department of Employment and Workplace Relations · Eligibility and exclusions · Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
The evidence
Sources for this update
- 01Back-pay and undertaking · Fair Work Ombudsman · 18 July 2019
- 02Administration announcement · ABC · 10 February 2020
- 03Payments and excluded workers · The Age · 29 June 2020
- 04Government safety net · Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
- 05Eligibility and exclusions · Department of Employment and Workplace Relations
Where the story stands
The story continues when the evidence does.
Status checked on 10 October 2026. The June 2020 report documents a payment step and a gap in scheme eligibility. A complete later account of the liquidation distributions and every former employee’s recovery has not been obtained. It would be inaccurate to say either that everyone was repaid or that the workers excluded in 2020 remain unpaid today.