Minnows’ Woes Like Broken Record

The Australian:

FEDERAL Small Business Minister Fran Bailey is hopping mad about a publicly listed company that has been accused of making its small business suppliers wait more than 60 days for their bills to be paid. It comes as franchisees have turned to the media for help after decades of government complacency.

As the case builds against big business - protected by a legal system designed for those with deep pockets - it is time that all political parties, at both federal and state level, went for the Good Samaritan option.

Yesterday former Michel’s Patisserie franchisees Ruth and George Nimbalker went to mediation praying for fairness and a reasonable settlement that would save their home. They have lost everything else in this long battle with their franchisor.

“I have been assured that it will be fair. Well let’s wait and see - hopefully my mediator knows what he is doing,” Mrs Nimbalker told The Australian before the mediation in Sydney. “He has assured me he does and is confident that he will be able to provide us a fair and reasonable environment, but that will not stop the feeling of anxiousness and desperation that we are feeling.”

The Nimbalkers have fought tooth and nail for a fair outcome. Ruth is a terrier, soliciting the help of Nine’s A Current Affair and this newspaper to air her case and the injustices she says she has confronted.

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