One of Australia's biggest real estate firms is distancing itself from the operations of one of its Sydney franchises following the collapse and apparent rebirth of one of its service companies.

The ABC has uncovered what appears to be a case of "phoenixing" by Ray White Randwick in the city's affluent eastern suburbs.

The case involves a service company behind the Ray White franchise folding in June this year, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to its employees.

But without missing a day's trading, the company's former directors set up another company, minus the debts and with seemingly no change to their lavish lifestyles.

In the real estate industry where name and reputation is everything, Zest Management has nothing like the recognition of Ray White.

At Ray White Randwick, the name Zest was once at the heart of operations. The company paid staff there as well as tradespeople.

In the months before Ray White went into liquidation two of the company's owners, Arthur Perdis and Craig Sewell, jumped ship.

With Arthur's brother, Napoleon, they set up another company, Eastern, and rehired many of the same staff owed entitlements after Zest went into liquidation.

It is what some people would describe as a phoenix manoeuvre.

But the man who chairs the Ray White Group, Brian White, is unconvinced.

"If you're talking about an artificial liquidation of a company to enable the taxpayer to pick up other entitlements, of course it's wrong," he said.

"I'm surprised you'd ask me, that you'd even ask the question. Do you think that there's a chance that we'd condone that?"

Mr White presides over the company started by his grandfather.

He has 1,000 franchises, most independently run, operating all over Australia as well as in Asia.

But none is giving him as much trouble as Ray White Randwick in Sydney's lucrative east.

"I can't give any explanation why something that works so perfectly in the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of our offices would go so astray here," Mr White said.

"We can't find any evidence of misproportion (sic) or criminal activity or financial fraud."

Ray White Randwick is now being run by Napoleon Perdis - not the Napoleon Perdis famous for his cosmetics empire.

Arthur Perdis and Mr Sewell remain principals, sharing 49 per cent of the franchise.

The company they left behind, Zest Management, owes large amounts of money to the Tax Office and the New South Wales Office of State Revenue.

Money owed

Then there are the employees - from receptionists to property managers to high-flying sales agents.

Natalie Zulian estimates she is owed $70,000.

"We had this conversation many, many times that the money is sitting in your bank account, you do need to pay me. I have bills, I have a family," she said.

"It was getting extremely stressful. I was getting bumped all the time. I really wasn't getting any positive answers that you know we're trying to work through this. It was always you know that sort of thing."

Ms Zulian says she was told she would get paid "at some stage".

Property manager Tracey Parkinson remembers when staff came to her asking about their superannuation.

"One particular staff member had discovered that her super had not been paid in a year. And I found that alarming and I decided to make inquiries," she said.

"I sent an email off to the accountant that pays the wages and I got a response.

"The response was that the super ... had not been paid in some time and that Napoleon was looking at ways to address this with the staff."

Benefits lost

Ms Parkinson has since left the business and remains disgusted about what went on.

"There are some people who've been there for almost 10 years. And you know they've lost all of their long service, all of their benefits," she said.

"There are people who didn't take holidays, who you know had a lot of unpaid leave accrued.

"It makes me feel angry that in this country that you can be working for a company that appears to be fine on the surface but can liquidate and trade as something else on the same day.

"And in that transaction if you like you lose, for some people, everything."

Samantha Fennelly told the ABC she felt betrayed by the actions of Mr Sewell, her long-time colleague.

"Craig and I had a really good relationship. I could go to him if I had dramas. He was confident in my ability," she said.

"I'd been in the business for over 10 years at that point so I knew my stuff.

"So I didn't have a drama in managing the team and the team ended up being quite good friends with a lot of them."

Ms Fennelly says she was made redundant a year ago. When she asked for a letter and a payout, she alleges she was terminated.

The dispute ended up going to court but on the morning of the hearing Mr Sewell settled, agreeing on a figure covering her entitlements and her legal fees.

But before the money was paid, Zest Management folded and Ms Fennelly became an unsecured creditor - in debt and with little hope of getting her money back.

"I still haven't got my entitlements, $37,500. And now I've got a barrister fee of $21,000 I've got to pay," she said.

"I've lost a lot in salary. So we're living off one salary at the moment and it's really tough."

The ABC approached the Perdis brothers and Mr Sewell for an interview but Ray White Head Office insists on speaking on behalf of franchisees.

Mr White says all staff will get their entitlements.

"Our company has appointed auditors to Ray White Randwick and its whole structure. We want to know the detail," he said.

"The new owner, the new major shareholder of Ray White Randwick is working with the liquidator to ascertain what the entitlements are. And those entitlements will be paid.

"The foundation of our company requires this to happen."

Footing the bill

But what happens to employees owed entitlements away from the media glare?

Mostly a government safety net scheme, called General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS), is left to pick up some of the entitlements.

In the last decade about $1 billion has been paid out by taxpayers.

Associate professor Christopher Symes is an insolvency expert at the University of Adelaide.

He says the existence of the GEERS insurance scheme may encourage the practice of companies folding because they realise that in the end the government will take some of the heat and pick up some of the entitlements.

"It's certainly possible to think that that might be happening in the sense that directors who are perhaps engaging in some kind of phoenixing would think 'well it doesn't really matter because if we leave behind the employees and what they're owed in the old company, they will pick up those amounts being paid for by the government under the GEERS scheme'," he said.

In the case of Ray White Randwick the ABC's interest in the story prompted Mr White to personally put pressure on his franchisees to pay the money.

Cracking down on phoenixing

Yesterday the cheques were issued.

But not everyone has been paid in full and some are being asked to accept a smaller amount.

Ms Zulian says others are asking head office to help them get what they say is rightfully theirs.

"There was probably up to a dozen staff that flagged them about three months approximately before they went into liquidation that things weren't right," she said.

"Things were running amok in there. We weren't getting our entitlements. We weren't getting paid. You know the whole everything.

"So apparently head office did flag them a couple of times but you know nothing transpired.

"Head office told me that they weren't aware that they'd gone into liquidation. And Craig Sewell, one of the directors, actually said to me after they went into liquidation that he had no idea they'd gone into liquidation."

In the meantime the Federal Government says it is taking steps to crack down on the practice of phoenixing.

A new enhanced scheme to safeguard workers' entitlements is due to be introduced next year.

But one thing will not change: taxpayers will still be left to help foot the bill when fleet-footed companies dodge their responsibilities to their employees.

For more on this story, tune in to PM on ABC Local Radio at 6pm, or The 7.30 Report on ABC TV.