In 2020, several newspapers followed the staff as they were struggling to get several months of salaries still unpaid. According to those articles:
- When COVID started, the two restaurants closed and the staff did not receive salaries or anything from the state relief fund given to the boss.
- After several months, the boss fired everybody but did not pay salaries for months during the termination notice, they could not get unemployment benefits because of this.
- The former owner sold the restaurants and the new owner opened them again with a new business number, and took no responsibility for the unpaid wages 🇮🇸. The new owner runs several restaurants in Selfoss and Reykjavík.
- The former owner quit communication with the workers.
- Former workers organised to picket the restaurant 🇮🇸 and call for boycott until they were paid their stolen wages.
During the newspaper investigations, other stories from previous years were reported 🇮🇸:
- In 2018, an Efling union representative discovered that workers were paid below minimum wage and did not receive pauses, between other issues.
- She successfully convinced her colleagues to request legal working conditions.
- As a retaliation, she was taken off the shift plan 🇮🇸.
- Other workers tell that they were understaffed and the boss took their propositions for improving the workplace without respect.
- Some staff had no working contracts. Some were paid minimum wage without taking into account work experience.
- A worker says that the salaries were paid late and sometimes not correctly.
Sources published May – July 2020:
- Fyrrverandi starfsmenn Messans rita opin bréf til eigenda og Eflingar – „Við vorum rænd laununum“ – DV
- Nýr eigandi Messans hafnar ásökunum um kennitöluflakk – Hvatt til sniðgöngu og neikvæðra umsagna – DV
- Benti á kjarasamningsbrot og var tekin af vaktaplani – Heimildin
- Starfsfólki Messans sagt upp – Heimildin
- Föst á Íslandi og fá ekki laun – Heimildin
- Messanum lokað eftir mótmæli fyrrum starfsfólks – Heimildin
Krossalind ehf. (kt: 680711-0890), real owner: Baldvin Jóhann Kristinsson; declared bankruptcy 27.05.2020, ceased operations under this kennitala: 5.11.2020 (company registry)
22 niðri ehf. (kt: 620513-1560), real owner: Baldvin Jóhann Kristinsson; declared bankruptcy 7.10.2020, ceased operations under this kennitala: 14.07.2023 (company registry)