More than a dozen redundant staff who served students at the Duntroon college have waited five weeks without being paid their severance entitlements, despite not getting a job with new contractors, a union has claimed.
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The delayed payments, worth thousands of dollars, have left a number of families struggling to pay bills in the lead up to Christmas.
But the company which employed the staff, some for nearly a decade, said the delay was out of their hands and all entitlements would soon be paid.
Michael Bradley worked for Serco Sodexo Defence Services for eight years as a catering steward at Duntroon's cadets' mess.
He was one of almost 1400 staff in the company's southern region, including the ACT and parts of NSW, who lost their SSDS jobs recently after this year's unsuccessful tender for defence contracts.
Mr Bradley, 52, said he had been told three times the severance pay would be coming and the failure to pay his entitlement of about $7700 was now hurting.
"It's very important, I've got gas bills sitting there, rego sitting there and Christmas coming up, with two young kids and trying to get Christmas presents," he said.
United Voice ACT branch secretary Lyndal Ryan said she knew at least 13 former staff who had not obtained employment with the new Duntroon contractor were waiting for severance payments.
Cleaner Elica Jankuloska, from Queanbeyan, was another SSDS worker whose termination took effect on October 31. Like Mr Bradley, she said she was entitled to 14 weeks' severance pay after eight years with the company, as well as pay for her four weeks' notice.
The mother of two adults said she had not worked since October last year after a "lift and a twist" with a rack of dishes left her with an injured back and, while a dispute continues with an insurer over workers' compensation payments, the lack of severance payments had compounded financial strain.
"For myself and my husband, we've had to rely on our kids to pay the bills, buy the groceries," she said.
SSDS interim chief executive Trevor Marriott said former employees would receive all payments due.
"In the ACT, we have been waiting for information through the Fair Work Commission which will let us confirm who has not been offered employment by the incoming contractors," Mr Marriott said.
"As of this week [Friday], we have received nearly all of the data required, it is being processed and we would hope to pay them shortly."
He said he believed more than 70 per cent of the 1400 former employees from the company's southern region had found alternative work, assisted in part by the company.
Redundancy entitlements for those who have obtained ongoing work will be decided in an active Fair Work Commission proceedings.
