Owner is working to resolve 'unfortunate situation' with unpaid staff

Workers from a village restaurant which closed down last week were left unpaid and out of pocket in the run up to Christmas.

As reported earlier this week, The Italian seafood restaurant Blue Lobster has closed, until further notice.

Owner Andrea Zacchino told alderleyedge.com "Unfortunately, our Italian investors decided to withdraw their interest in the business and recalled the chef back to Italy. For these reasons, the restaurant has been closed until further notice."

However, members of their staff got in touch saying the closure was due to them not getting paid and several workers walking away.

Marcus Frost, a bar tenders at Blue Lobster and one of two members of staff to have been at the restaurant from when it opened, got in touch because he wanted to share 'the real reason for closure'.

Marcus said "It involves many of the staff and management leaving due to not being paid. And some of the staff still having not been paid."

He added "On Tuesday the 5th of December the General Manager left due to not being paid since September. As the General Manager came over from Italy specifically to work on the Blue Lobster project, he had to pay for accommodation and living costs - this made being owed £3500 a lot more of a burden to deal with.

"Then on Friday 8th of December the staff of Blue Lobster were due to be paid. Andrea said he would pay on Monday. This didn't happen causing staff to complain and some to refuse to work. Then on Tuesday 12th the bar manager (acting GM) and the chefs, both who came from Italy for the job, gave Andrea an ultimatum. Pay them the next day or they will go back to Italy, as it was too expensive for them to stay. Andrea refused to pay them therefore they left and the restaurant had no other option but to close."

Alderley Edge resident Katy Fairbotham told alderleyedge.com "Andrea Zacchino has not paid his managers for months and they walked away from the business. They have not had a head chef for over a month due to the same reason."

She added "Things came to a head last week when the rest of the staff (myself included) were not paid with Mr Zacchino promising to pay time and time again and not delivering. I even went to speak to him at his office on Friday and waited for two hours for him not to have the guts or even decency to come down."

The single mother of three girls said "I worked extremely hard at the restaurant and to be out of pocket at Christmas has literally knocked me for six. To make things worse the Veeno chain opened another venue in London last week and are considering making Blue Lobster another Veeno. They have money for this but not for their staff here."

Today, Andrea Zacchino told alderleyedge.com "Due to a shareholding restructuring, our investors decided to withdraw the support for the venture and we have been forced to close until further notice.

"This is clearly disappointing but we are planning to start a new concept soon in the same building, with our own investment and without any involvement of other external investors."

He added "About the former employees, this is an unfortunate situation that we are trying to resolve as we speak and have already reached an agreement with most of them. According to our shareholder's agreement, the former manager is legally responsible for these obligations but he fled to Italy leaving unpaid staff and other liabilities.... and now we have to resolve this situation."

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