Dinner by Heston Blumenthal collapse: Australian taxpayer to pay for some of $4.5 million unpaid wages bill
This is how Australian taxpayers will end up paying for some of the $4.5 million wages bill for workers, after his restaurant at Crown in Melbourne collapsed.
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Exclusive: Australian taxpayers will pick up some of the $4.5 million wages bill that the collapsed Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurant has left behind.
A liquidators meeting will be held in Melbourne on Monday to discuss how much creditors can expect to get back from the shuttered restaurant.
Workers will be entitled to claim up to 13 weeks’ pay from the Australian Government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.
However, migrant workers, who are already at risk of being deported because they have lost their jobs, will not be able to access that cash.
Blumenthal, 53, did not have shares in the restaurant at Melbourne’s Crown casino complex, but a company linked to him received a $1.9 million AUD payment each year from Crown for the use of his name and intellectual property.
Luke Hilakari, secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, said taxpayers were being ripped off due to the restaurant’s collapse.
“The only fat duck is the Australian taxpayer,” he said.
He also said Blumenthal should take responsibility for the money owed to workers, while he also demanded Crown stepped up to take a share of the bill, too.
“Heston should be held responsible for this giant mess,” he said.
Dinner By Heston Blumenthal closed its doors at Crown for the last time on Friday night.
Tipsy Cake, the company that owned the restaurant, had debts of more than $10 million when it was put into liquidation.
The restaurant only made a profit in the final three months of its four-year life, despite having a 75 per cent profit margin on the wine and liquor it served.
Workers are listed as a priority creditor in the BRI Ferrier liquidation report, which details the losses of the restaurant.
Andrew Spring, of Jirsch Sutherland in Sydney, who has not been assigned this matter, has worked as a liquidator in the UK and Australia for almost 20 years.
He said that Dinner by Heston Blumenthal workers would be able to use the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.
“Workers will be able to access up to 13 weeks’ pay,” he said.
“The FEG scheme does have an enforcement arm and they watch out for (any wrongdoing). They can have a go at liquidators.”
Mr Sutherland said employers usually try to do the right thing by its staff.
“Employees entitlements is not usually the thing that directors deliberately try to wrack up,” he said.
Many workers will be owed more than 13 weeks’ pay after toiling away for up to 80 hours a week on annualised salaries that did not pay overtime or penalty rates.
British-based Tipsy Cake blamed Crown for the underpayment of workers, saying the company gave it the wrong “blueprint” for how to pay wages.
However, Crown has denied responsibility, saying the restaurant was a tenant and not a joint venture.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk