The Cowra abattoir workers are owed over $2 million in unpaid entitlements. Earlier this year the Prime Minister, Workplace Minister Kevin Andrews and the Government's Office of Workplace Services (OWS) all supported Mr Mulligan when he used the Government's IR laws to sack 27 workers at the abattoir and offer them their jobs back with a 30% pay cut. The Government has also criticised the ACTU for highlighting the case in its campaign against the IR laws saying Mr Mulligan had done nothing wrong. ACTU Secretary Greg Combet said: "John Howard has been using the Cowra Abattoir case to defend his IR laws and attack the credibility of the ACTU's campaign against the laws. "The Prime Minister and Kevin Andrews have backed Mr Mulligan 100%. They have defended him in the media and in Parliament and a so-called investigation by the Office of Workplace Services (OWS) found that the company had legitimate business reasons for sacking the workers because it was losing money. "Now we find from the Administrators of the collapsed abattoir that there may have been breaches of the Corporations Law including possible insolvent trading. The ACTU is particularly interested in the loan made by the abattoir to a related company under the control of Mr Mulligan. The ACTU calls on Mr Mulligan to ensure that the Cowra Abattoir workers receive their full entitlements and are not disadvantaged by any of the transactions made in the lead up to the collapse of the abattoir. "That this situation has occurred to workers while the so called 'regulator' of workplace issues - the Government's OWS was investigating them is a disgrace. The Federal Government should immediately re-examine this case to ensure that the workers receive all of their entitlements and that ASIC closely scrutinises any potential breaches of the Corporations Act," said Mr Combet.