Lentil As Anything Reportedly Owes $400k In Wages To Staff

Pay-as-you-feel restaurant chain Lentil As Anything reportedly owed staff at least $369,000 when it shut down in February of this year, a new report has revealed.

The social enterprise group previously operated restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne, where customers could pay what they felt for meals, making it a favourite among backpackers and university students throughout its 21-year operation.

However, it has since been revealed by The Age that the restaurants may have operated while insolvent for three years before eventually closing their doors for good earlier this year.

“It is our preliminary position that the company was likely insolvent from at least 30 June, 2019, and likely earlier,” a recent creditors report from Worrells revealed, noting that further investigation is needed to verify this.

For those unfamiliar, trading while insolvent (unable to pay your debts) is a serious offence and can result in fines of up to $200,000 or even five years in prison. According to the report, the chain owed nearly $600,000 to creditors, as well as at least $110,000 in employee entitlements and $258,491 in unpaid superannuation. Creditors include the Abbotsford Convent (owed $85,000) and the Australian Taxation Office.

However, the situation gets even more tricky because there’s some confusion as to how much staff are actually owed, as a number of them worked as “volunteers”.

The report also found that extremely poor record-keeping makes it virtually impossible to make a conclusion “for or against improper or illegal conduct at Lentil”, which — understandably — makes it an even bigger headache for anyone trying to resolve the situation.