Several months ago, celebrity chef George Calombaris made headlines for underpaying his employees.  The celebrity chef was caught underpaying approximately 40% of his workforce, short changing them a total of 2.6 million dollars.  It was reported that as an average, employees are to be repaid in excess of $16,000 each.

Click here to read more https://hrgurus.com.au/the-cost-of-underpaying-employees.

Mr Calombaris has now gone from the frypan and into the fire with the latest news those employees will not be paid until as late as June 2018!

The delay until mid-2018 has angered the former employees who have call on the lucrative celebrity chef and his multi-millionaire business partner Radek Sali to personally settle outstanding debts owed to staff.  Surely this would be loose pocket change for the successful MasterChef judge and multi restaurateur?

When the initial underpayments were discovered the former employees were advised to submit claims that would be reviewed, investigated and paid by June 2017.  This deadline has well and truly passed.  This is apparently due to the time it takes to review such a high volume of claims needing to be thoroughly investigated.

Made Establishments Chief Executive Troy McDonagh has advised “we continue to keep the Fair Work Ombudsman and former employees informed of our progress in processing payments to former employees”.  He then goes on to say, “We are absolutely committed to ensuring people receive all the payments they are entitled to under the Award”.

The Fair Work Ombudsman have released a statement saying, “although they understand such large-scale reconciliations can take a large amount of time and resources, they believe it is unfair to expect people to wait this long for money that is owed to them”.  I am sure the former employees would whole heartedly agree!

Made Establishment was first alerted to the underpayment issue by the Fair Work Ombudsman back in 2015 however this was not looked into until October 2016 when Troy McDonagh was appointed to the position of Chief Executive.

Are you paying Award rates?  Contact HR Gurus on 1300 959 560 and one of highly qualified HR professionals will be able assist.

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