IT WAS supposed to have been a hangout for the beautiful people.

But a year after former MediaCorp actor Lin Yisheng announced the plans for a swank club at the site of the former Europa Country Club Resort and Chequers Hotel, it has still not opened for business.

Now, a group of its employees have lodged complaints against the Celebrities Resort Club to claim about $30,000 in owed wages.

The 28 of them made a police report last Tuesday and gave the club until noon yesterday to make good on their back pay.

When it became clear the owed money was not coming, 12 of them went to the Ministry of Manpower.

Mr Reno Tay, 41, who was hired as a food and beverage manager and who is owed about $6,000, said they were all 'very frustrated'.

Some were owed not just their salaries, but had given up careers elsewhere to join the Thomson Lane club.

Things had looked rosy when former actor Lin, 43, took over the site with two business partners a year ago.

In an interview with The Straits Times at the time, he said that the club's game plan was to attract the well-heeled with media and sports celebrities.

Mr Lin and his partners had reportedly been planning to spend between $1 million and $3 million to equip the club with a spa, pool, tennis court, poker room, Japanese restaurant and 20 hotel rooms.

But the funds did not come through, he told The Straits Times last week.

When The Straits Times visited the site last Tuesday, the club looked anything but welcoming. The grass was uncut, dead leaves were floating in the pool and mosquitoes swarmed around the place.

Hopes of getting the club off the ground were momentarily buoyed last October. A new investor had come on board and called for the hiring of staff to begin.

Still, no fresh funds came in, Mr Lin said.

The employees, ranging from cleaners and waitresses to cooks, were told to go on no-pay leave in mid-January.

At the club last Tuesday, about 10 workers met Mr Lin and his wife Wendy to demand answers.

'We just want fairness,' shouted Mr Sky Woo, 44, who was hired as the assistant manager of the coffee house and is owed about $1,000.

Another, Mr Gabriel Yu, 39, who was to have been the chef at the Japanese restaurant, said that they were fed empty promises and just told to 'wait, wait, wait'.

Mr Tay said to Mr Lin: 'We just feel that you didn't do enough to get the money.'

hoaili@sph.com.sg