A Glasgow business owner has been slammed for owing thousands in unpaid holiday pay, pensions and tax to dozens of employees across the city.
Richard Davies is one of three businessmen behind the Abandon Ship and MacMerry bar chain, who have been accused of the “systematic mistreatment” of dozens of staff in Glasgow and Dundee.
Davies won retailer of the year at the Scottish Fashion Awards in 2014 with trendy Abandon Ship Apparel but was accused of abandoning his debts and leaving creditors and staff out of pocket when the clothing brand folded.
Davies, who ran ASA Retail Ltd with co-director Duncan Sweeny, sold Abandon Ship t-shirts online, with retailer ASOS and in a shop at Glasgow’s Princes Square.
When the staff were made redundant in 2016 the company owed almost £120,000 to 12 creditors, The Sunday Mail reports.
Now a number of Davies' former employees claim pension contributions were taken from their wages but not paid into a retirement fund.
A litany of other complaints include unpaid holiday wages, sexual harassment not properly investigated and coronavirus regulations not followed.
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Bryan Simpson, of Unite Hospitality, said: “Six weeks after we sent a shocking collective grievance backed up by a plethora of irrefutable evidence, we are still waiting on any substantial update on the sexual misconduct investigation which was promised by the directors.
“Our members are still owed thousands in unpaid holiday pay, pensions and tax, with directors completely ignoring requests for payment.
“Hearing there are historical financial issues is not surprising but still worrying.
“We need directors to stop burying their heads in the sand, to pay workers what they are owed and to engage with the union, which represents a majority of their workforce.”
Davies was also a director of Easttradingco Ltd, which folded around the same time as ASA, and Companies House records show he has been the director of four other dissolved firms.
The MacMerry chain, run by Phil Donaldson and AJ McMenemy, includes Dundee bars Draffens and Bird And Bear plus The Luchador in Glasgow.
The entrepreneurs also operate the Abandon Ship bars in Glasgow and Dundee with Davies, who regularly posts about his business ventures and fashionable lifestyle on social media.
The businessmen have been accused of mistreating about 60 workers in Scotland at their 13 bars.
Joel Galbraith, 28, a former sous chef at Abandon Ship in Glasgow, is one of the employees demanding to know what has happened to his pension.
Pay slips seen by the Sunday Mail show contributions were taken from his wages but he says they have never been paid into a Nest pension fund account.
Another worker has told how she was contacted by HMRC who were telling her she owed more than £2000 in tax after a period of being employed with MacMerry.
McMenemy and Donaldson set up MacMerry 300 in 2010 before later going into business with Davies.
