Ettamogah denies financial problems

Leigh O’Brien, Managing Director of Ettamogah Entertainment, says there are no financial problems with the company despite standing down more than 100 employees without pay.

”No, definitely not. It’s just an issue we had with the production, which we’re trying to resolve,” he told The Age.

”If you’ve got budget overruns, you’ve got to fix it up. We’ve created 120 jobs here and trained everyone in animation and there’s no financial problems whatsoever.”

The production in question is L’il Larrakins, being produced for TEN. Ettamogah has been making industry news for several weeks now over the issue.

50 staff were ordered to leave the Brighton studios on October 21st because of budget overruns while most of the remaining staff were then stood down on November 5th.

Writers, voice-over artists and animators say they are owed more than $100,000 in unpaid wages while superannuation payments have not been made for several months.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance recently alerted its members to complaints about the company and asked for concerned members to come forward. It will take the case to Fair Work Australia, the national workplace relations tribunal.

One animator said people were having trouble keeping a roof over their heads and feeding their families.

Now, complaints have been lodged with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Cherrie Bottger, Head of Children’s Television at TEN, said recently that Ettamogah had adhered to its expected deadlines for the scripts, and that nothing untoward was apparent.

Source: The Age