More than 170 staff were axed as supermarket chain GrandMart shut its seven branches yesterday, withholding salaries and refusing redundancy.
About 90 full-time employees sought help from the Labour Department and made a claim for unpaid wages, severance pay and payment in lieu of notice totalling more than $10 million, it was estimated.
The firm's director, Alex Lau Kam-hung, summoned staff at 5.15pm on Thursday, some employees reported.
He announced that the company would be liquidated and was unable to pay them this month's wages plus other compensation, advising them to file a claim with the Labour Department.
Major department heads and the entire security department of six were ordered to take one-month paid leave at the end of July, warehouse and distribution manager Robert Leung Kung-kai, 51, said.
GranMart owed him more than $200,000, he said.
'The new management are all cowards. They dared not come out and talk and chose to sack us at the end of a month. Not only 90 staff but 90 families are affected. These people are without conscience,' he said.
