Hooters venues up for sale; Restaurant caught underpaying workers $20,000: Midday Roundup

Deloitte will soon begin a marketing campaign to sell five Hooters restaurants in New South Wales and Queensland.

Earlier this week, SmartCompany revealed several companies linked to the Hooters Australia chain of restaurants had been placed in administration, including Hoot Australia and companies linked to Hooters outlets in Parramatta, Penrith, Campbelltown, Townsville and the Gold Coast.

Deloitte restructuring services partner Michael Billingsley said in a statement to Fairfax all of the restaurants are “trading normally” while the administrators “begin investigating the performance of each business and determine next steps”.

“We expect to commence marketing the businesses for sale shortly with a view to selling as a going concern to maintain employment for staff and ongoing trading for suppliers,” he said.

Restaurant caught underpaying workers $20,000

A Western Australian restaurant has found itself in hot water after the Fair Work Ombudsman discovered it had left 19 workers about $20,000 out-of-pocket.

The ombudsman said in a statement it discovered the Fremantle restaurant had been underpaying employees their casual hourly rates, weekend and early-morning penalty rates over the course of a 12 month period.

The FWO ordered the Fremantle restaurant pay back the wages.

The matter is one of a number of similar cases around Perth recently, which has seen businesses in Malaga, Warwick, Midland and Subiaco ordered to pay back unpaid wages.

Shares out of puff at end of big week

The local market fell shortly after opening this morning on the back of a big week overseas for China and Greece.

Analyst Tristan K’Nell of Quay Equities said in a statement the issues abroad likely led to the local market “running out of steam” at the end of the week, but believed it was a good week overall.

“It’s been a much more positive week for the Australian market with some good gains, so no surprise to see some profits booked for the week,” he said

“Given limited economic data in the Asia pacific region today it was no surprise to see the investors market reflect on a big week which included the issues and hopes for resolutions in Greece and China and the volatility of commodity markets.”

The S&P/ASX200 benchmark was down 0.1%, falling 7.5 points to 5662.1 points at 12.04pm AEST. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed up 0.39%, rising 70.08 points to 18120.2 points.