00:02Piles of paperwork growing at the same rate as their frustration.
00:06We have said from the beginning we wouldn't give up.
00:09We left there in March 23 and now it's April 26 and still fighting the fight.
00:15These women quit their jobs at a Northside optometrist more than three years ago.
00:19Together they were owed about $27,000 in long service leave by their former employer,
00:25the majority of which they're yet to receive.
00:27Both thought the struggle was over when they obtained civil judgements ordering him to pay up.
00:32We just want justice, we want our money and we feel that other women,
00:39lots of other women are suffering the same.
00:41Helping their quest for justice are lawyers who picked up the case on a no cost basis.
00:46It would not have been worth their while to engage a private lawyer to try and get these funds back
00:51because they would have ended up paying them more than the leave is actually worth.
00:55Lawyers first secured judgements in the women's favour in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal
01:00and when they still weren't paid they took the case to the ACT Magistrates Court
01:04asking it to enforce the judgements.
01:07Last week that court issued an arrest warrant for the women's former employer, Ross Hugh,
01:12when he failed to attend a scheduled hearing.
01:14In a statement, Mr Hugh told the ABC he's begun repaying the debts
01:18and hopes to have paid them in full by the end of June.
01:21Lawyers say the case exposes the complexity of the legal framework around long service leave,
01:27which is administered by the states and territories.
01:30We're requiring employees to basically seek their entitlements in two legal processes,
01:36something that is incredibly demanding and incredibly time consuming.
01:40Processes that may not be over yet.
01:43employers absolute
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01:43normal
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