A woke Melbourne bakery chain that calls Australia Day “Invasion Day” has shut down while owing staff about $360,000 in unpaid leave and superannuation and a massive tax bill.
All Are Welcome, which had three stores in Northcote, Thornbury and Ivanhoe East and employed 61 staff, announced on Saturday that it was closing after eight years in business, and founder Boris Portnoy told ABC News he planned to “minimise any harm” to employees.
Mr Portnoy, who is of Russian-Jewish descent, previously explained that the bakery’s name was inspired by a sign on the door from the Northcote premise’s previous owners, saying: “Part of the ethos of the place is that all are welcome because I’m also an immigrant in this country.”
But despite the company crafting a left-wing and compassionate image on social media, current and former staff have not been paid $243,000 in superannuation and $125,000 in leave entitlements, and the ATO is owed a total of $1.4 million, ABC News reported.
All Are Welcome went into voluntary administration earlier this year, prompting staff to check their superannuation accounts and discover payments were missing, with some claiming they are owed thousands of dollars each.
“[I felt] disappointed because we were led to feel quite responsible for the financial situation of the business in that there was a lot of pressure put on all of us as employees in terms of keeping the roster as tight as we can and ordering as tight as we can in order to sort of get the business across the line,” one ex-employee said.
“Then to find out that we’ve been withheld entitlements and hadn’t been told, felt like a bit of a blindside.”
Mr Portnoy subsequently bought the business back with a new entity, and told ABC News last week “all outstanding employee entitlements are to be assumed by the new company”.
“I regret the impact this has had on staff, and I remain committed to cooperating fully with the administrators to support the continuation of the business in a manner that prioritises entitlements and obligations,” he said.
All Are Welcome’s Saturday closing announcement on Instagram attracted comments accusing the company of hypocrisy as a result of the money owed to staff.
“Yet another hospitality venue that poses as progressive and trendy. Working with contractors and chefs and farmers who give a shit and work with integrity but those relationships are all for clout in the end, because you don’t respect them enough to pay them,” one person wrote.
“I’m so disappointed by this because I really enjoyed going to your bakeries and genuinely believed you were doing right by staff and suppliers,” said another.
But several other commenters claiming to be staff members spoke out about loving their jobs – one said some of their “best work memories” were at All Are Welcome, while another said the closure had left a “giant hole in my heart”.
Mr Portnoy, who was locked out of the Northcote shop on Friday, said it was not a “big bad boss versus staff who don’t have any say” situation.
“I want to take responsibility for what has happened as far as entitlements. I don’t want to wash it in any kind of way, but there is a lot of goodwill here,” he said.
Header image: The All Are Welcome store in Northcote (Facebook).
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