MasterChef judge George Calombaris fined for underpaying staff $7.8 million
Network Ten has been urged to drop George Calombaris from MasterChef after he admitted underpaying staff nearly $8 million.
George Calombaris has been slapped with a $200,000 fine after admitting to underpaying staff at his Melbourne restaurants nearly $8 million.
The celebrity chef and MasterChef host has agreed to make the “contrition payment” as part of a deal with the Fair Work Ombudsman after more than 500 current and former employees were underpaid to the tune of $7.83 million.
That dwarfs the previous number from Calombaris when the underpayment scandal first emerged in 2017. It had been estimated that 162 staff at Calombaris’ Made Establishment group of restaurants were underpaid $2.6 million.
Under the enforceable undertaking, he must also effectively become an ambassador for the Fair Work Ombudsman with a series of “speaking engagements to educate the restaurant industry on the importance of workplace compliance”.
The Fair Work Ombudsman’s four-year investigation into Calombaris’ Made Establishment, whose restaurants include Hellenic Republic, The Press Club and Gazi, also extended into his Jimmy Grants restaurants.
Inspectors uncovered a raft of breaches including a failure to pay minimum award rates, overtime and other allowances, with casual employees particularly affected. Made Establishment also failed to keep proper records of hours worked by staff on an annualised basis, leading to significant underpayment of overtime and penalty rate hours.
Under the agreement, Calombaris will be required to implement new payroll and compliance systems and each venue must be independently audited for the next three years.
Made Establishment has now back-paid more than $7.83 million to 515 current or former employees of Press Club, Gazi and Hellenic Republic for work between 2011 and 2017, and a further $16,371 has been back-paid to nine employees of Jimmy Grants.
In a statement, Made Establishment confirmed it had entered into an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman “after self-reporting incorrect payments of staff”.
“The incorrect payments were identified by Made during a review in early 2017, following a change in ownership and management,” the statement said.
“After an investigation, the FWO confirmed Made’s finding that employees had been incorrectly classified and underpaid due to incorrect processes and failures within its payroll and human resources functions.”
Made Group chief executive Leigh Small said all current team members were now correctly classified and new processes and procedures had been put in place.
“All current Made team members have been correctly classified, and all entitlements verified as owing to current and past employees have been calculated and paid, with a handful of claims now being finalised,” he said.
“Since changing ownership, we have introduced a new CEO, a new people and culture director and new processes and procedures to ensure we’re not only complying with workplace relations laws but actively promoting a culture of employee wellbeing.
“We look forward to continuing to grow our business and providing all team members with the tools, education and environment to succeed in their careers for years to come.”
Calombaris apologised to all former and current staff affected and committed to playing his part in helping influence positive change in the hospitality industry.
“We apologise to all our affected team members, past and present — as it is our people that make our restaurants great, and it is our priority to ensure all of our employees feel respected, rewarded and supported in their roles,” he said.
“We are committed to acting as a force for change in the industry and leading by example when it comes to building and promoting supportive, healthy and compliant hospitality workplaces.”
Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said the enforceable undertaking would ensure improved wages and record-keeping practices were locked in at Made Group.
“The court-enforceable undertaking commits Made Establishment to stringent measures to ensure that current and future employees across their restaurant group are paid correctly,” Ms Parker said in a statement.
“Made’s massive back-payment bill should serve as a warning to all employers that if they don’t get workplace compliance right from the beginning, they can spend years cleaning up the mess.”
She added, “The Fair Work Ombudsman is cracking down on underpayments in the fast food, restaurant and cafe sector, and we urge employers to check if they are paying their staff correctly.”
The Fair Work Ombudsman is currently investigating a number of other high-profile restaurants run by the likes of Neil Perry, Guillaume Brahimi, Teage Ezard and Heston Blumenthal for alleged underpayments, Nine newspapers has reported.
NETWORK TEN STANDS BY HOST
The news has sparked calls on social media for Network Ten to drop Calombaris from his long-running gig as MasterChef judge, but the broadcaster is standing by its star.
“Hey @masterchefau, we know you don’t support chefs ripping off their workers, and that you would never endorse a chef underpaying their staff millions of dollars,” Unions NSW wrote on Twitter. “So why is Calombaris on your payroll? It’s time to drop the MasterThief from MasterChef.”
The union has started a petition for Calombaris to be dropped. “Sadly #wagetheft is trending in Australia and chefs like Calombaris walk away with little more than a slap on the wrist from the Fair Work Ombudsman when they get caught,” it reads.
A Network Ten spokeswoman said, “George and Made Establishment have reached an agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman in relation to this matter. George has the support of Network Ten. We will not be making any further comment.”
In a statement, Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O’Neil said the law needed to change. “If anyone stole $7.8 million and got caught they would expect to spend a long time in prison, but when you’re an employer and you steal from your workers all you have to do is pay it back,” she said.
“Wage theft is systemic across entire industries. We need harsher penalties, directors to be held responsible for their actions and rights for unions to access workplaces and ensure that workers are being paid correctly. We also need a simple, accessible process for workers to claim back wages that they have had stolen.
“The government is doing nothing to address wage theft, or the integrity of employers, and instead is focused on legislation which attacks working people and is so extreme that is has no equivalent in the western world.
“This isn’t an isolated (incident) or an oversight by a handful of employers, this is a business model for the retail and hospitality sectors and we need to change the law to change behaviour.”
Frustrated cops’ unique way to crash presser
Police in one state have pulled out all stops to crash a press conference and highlight their plight as a pay dispute intensifies.
Grim find in search for worker lost at sea
Authorities may have made a grim discovery in the search for a missing ship worker bound for Australia.
Man loses leg in horror workplace incident
A man’s leg was amputated after he became stuck in machinery, with rescue crews rushing to the scene to try to free him.