Hundreds of workers who lost millions of dollars in redundancy, superannuation and other payments when their companies were put into administration have rallied outside the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) office in Melbourne.

The rally included AMWU members from Forgecast, Coghlan and Russell, Huon, Apollo Engineering, Paragon Printing Ltd and Metaltec.

The workers lost millions of dollars when their companies collapsed without the money to pay them what they are legally owed.

Assets from these companies are not being recovered because ASIC does not investigate company collapses it considers too small.

In fact, only 348 people have sent to jail by ASIC since it was established in January 1991.

This is not good enough.

AMWU Victorian Secretary Steve Dargavel said ASIC must work harder to seek justice for devastated workers and their communities.

“In all these companies workers have put in decades of service only to see their entitlements lost. 100% of workers’ entitlements should be recovered. ASIC must start holding the Directors to account,” he said.

The AMWU is calling on the Minister for Financial Services, the Hon Chris Bowen MP, to strengthen ASIC’s powers to investigate cases of corporate misconduct and for the federal government to create a national system that protects workers entitlements in full.