Gilson South Yarra: Operators fined $204,000 for underpaying staff

A trendy inner city Italian eatery has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for its treatment of its 40 employees.

Operators of South Yarra’s Gilson restaurant have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for underpaying staff. Picture: Sarah Matray.

A Melbourne restaurateur who established a series of inner city cafes has copped a large fine after his Italian restaurant was found to have underpaid staff.

James McBride and his company Domain Botanical Business were fined $204,100 in the Federal Circuit Court on May 26 for the treatment of 40 employees at South Yarra’s Gilson restaurant between December 2017 and June 2018.

The “neighbourhood Italian” restaurant on Domain Rd, which opened in 2016, has gained a reputation as a trendy casual coffee and brunch spot, with wood-fired pizza and pasta, antipasto, meat dishes and deserts.

More than half of the impacted employees were visa holders from non-English speaking countries including France, Brazil, Nepal and Chile and worked as kitchen attendants, waiters and chefs.

The court heard 14 of the visa holders were aged 25 or under when they started working at Gilson.

Some were paid as low as $18 per hour, which failed to meet minimum wage requirements under the 2010 Restaurant Industry Award.

The employees were underpaid a total of $53,850 during the period, and Gilson’s operators also failed to keep time sheet records and provide proper meal breaks.

The Fair Work Ombudsman took Mr McBride and the company to court in July 2020 after it became aware of the activities during an audit.

The company rectified the underpayments to the affected staff that month after the Ombudsman commenced legal action.

Federal Circuit Court judge Philip Burchardt ordered penalties of $170,100 for the company and $34,020 for Mr McBride, the company’s sole director.

Judge Burchardt felt Mr McBride was “at the very least, wilfully blind” to the award’s obligations.

“Equally, however, the failure to pay employees their wages and to give them their benefits under the award is also, in my view, of commensurate seriousness … bearing in mind the nature of the industry and the disadvantaged nature of the employees,” he said.

Fair Work Ombudsman spokeswoman Sandra Parker said it did not tolerate “the exploitation of any worker, including migrants who can be vulnerable due to factors such as limited English.”
“All workers in Australia have the same rights, regardless of citizenship or visa status,” she said.

According to Broadsheet, Mr McBride previously founded three inner city cafes including Richmond’s Touchwood, Northcote’s Barry and Armadale’s Mammoth cafe.

Staff at Mammoth and Touchwood said Mr McBride was no longer involved with their cafes when contacted by Leader.

Gilson staff declined to comment. Mr McBride has also been contacted for comment.