{"id":90690,"date":"1999-12-31T00:17:00","date_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smartoffice.com.au\/three-senior-dick-smith-executives-axed-today\/"},"modified":"1999-12-31T00:17:00","modified_gmt":"1999-12-30T13:17:00","slug":"three-senior-dick-smith-executives-axed-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.strixdevelopment.net\/smartoffice\/1999\/12\/31\/three-senior-dick-smith-executives-axed-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Senior Dick Smith Executives Axed Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three senior executives at Dick Smith have been sacked today as investigators probe the books looking for issues that could impact the sale of the business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Among the three executives who left the Company today was<\/p>\n<p>Mark Scott, who was described as the right hand man to Nick Aboud the former<\/p>\n<p>CEO of Dick Smith. Up until today Scott was responsible for all buying<\/p>\n<p>operations at Dick Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Also gone from the management ranks is John Skellern<\/p>\n<p>Director of Property, Supply Chain and Procurement, he was also commercial<\/p>\n<p>director, also flicked was chief financial officer Michael Potts. All were<\/p>\n<p>close associates of Nick Aboud and all were former Myer executives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The culling of people associated with Nick Aboud comes as<\/p>\n<p>Indian retailer Tata holds discussions with Dick Smith receiver Ferrier Hodgson<\/p>\n<p>with a view to taking over the Dick Smith retail operation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">ChannelNews was told earlier this week that one of the<\/p>\n<p>conditions that Tata raised was that they did not want to take on board any former<\/p>\n<p>senior management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">We have also been that Tata is also considering an<\/p>\n<p>investment struggling US TV Company Visio that could impact the proposed Dick<\/p>\n<p>Smith acquisition of assets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">According to sources Tata which is a US$134-Billion-dollar<\/p>\n<p>Indian conglomerate has been approached to invest in Visio who are currently<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;struggling financially&#8221; according to sources.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Tata who have a TV manufacturing plant in India are close to<\/p>\n<p>making a decision on the proposed Visio investment a move that could stall any<\/p>\n<p>investment in Australia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Earlier today it was revealed that Dick Smith had underpaid<\/p>\n<p>3200 workers as much as $2 million an issue that was not revealed by Aboud to<\/p>\n<p>the ASX.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8220;Based on our investigations to date, we understand that up<\/p>\n<p>to 3200 current and former employees of the Australian business may have been<\/p>\n<p>underpaid their annual leave loading entitlements, potentially dating back to<\/p>\n<p>2010,&#8221; receiver and manager to Dick Smith, Ferrier Hodgson executive James<\/p>\n<p>Stewart, told the Australian newspaper today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The receivers estimate that annual leave loading<\/p>\n<p>underpayment might be around $2 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8220;The underpayment of entitlements appears to reflect an<\/p>\n<p>incorrect application of the relevant industrial award,&#8221; Mr Stewart said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">It is unclear if the sudden departure of Dick Smith&#8217;s chief<\/p>\n<p>financial officer Michael Potts, also announced today, is linked to the<\/p>\n<p>underpayment of wages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Mr Stewart told The Australian that Dick Smith executives<\/p>\n<p>had been working on finding out the amount of underpaid wages since late last<\/p>\n<p>year, but had not completed their work before the retailer collapsed in<\/p>\n<p>January.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8220;The business had identified that there was an issue late<\/p>\n<p>last year, and it was really a question of working through the detail of that<\/p>\n<p>issue to understand what the quantum was,&#8221; Mr Stewart said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&#8220;They thought there could be a problem but they hadn&#8217;t<\/p>\n<p>completed their due diligence on it and they didn&#8217;t know whether it was a problem<\/p>\n<p>or not, and when we became receivers of it (the business) we worked with the<\/p>\n<p>team internally to work through that process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Mr Stewart declined to comment on the reasons for Mr Potts&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>departure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The incorrect application of the relevant industrial award<\/p>\n<p>is estimated to have added another $2 million to Dick Smith&#8217;s outstanding<\/p>\n<p>liabilities.<o_p><\/o_p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three senior executives at Dick Smith have been sacked today as investigators probe the books looking for issues that could impact the sale of the business.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-archive","category-retail","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - 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