George Calombaris, arsehole

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Bomberboyokay

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Sep 27, 2014
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Underpaying staff by $2.6m. That's quite an accounting 'error' :drunk:

MasterChef judge and chef George Calombaris has apologised after his restaurant group was caught underpaying staff a total of up to $2.6 million.

The chef, a judge on reality TV program MasterChef, short-changed 162 of his restaurants' 430 employees, including staff at his Melbourne restaurants The Press Club, Gazi and Hellenic Republic.

The MAdE Establishment Group was first alerted to a problem with their payroll system by the Fair Work Ombudsman more than 18 months ago.

Chief executive of MAdE Establishment Troy McDonagh, who was appointed in October, commissioned an independent review and found there had been a mix-up in how overtime was calculated.

"The matter in 2015 was relating to one team member in one restaurant, but it was a reflection of our systems and processes at the time," he said.

"We've now fixed those and are really positive about where we're headed."

Mr McDonagh said the wider problem, which also led to a number of staff being overpaid their base salary, was discovered by the review in January.

"There was absolutely no intent, we've overpaid some employees and we're leaving those team members unchanged, and those who have been underpaid we've rectified," he said.

Calombaris said he was "devastated" by the situation, which led to staff members being repaid an average of more than $16,000.

He said staff affected had been reimbursed yesterday.

"Our amazing team members are the key to our success. I am sorry we have messed up and let you down on a fundamental issue, which is to ensure our people are paid their full entitlements," he said in a statement.

"I am devastated by what has happened and we have been working extremely hard to fix this.

"I want to be clear that getting it right means ensuring that every single one of our team members is paid what they are entitled to under the industry award, and that any outstanding money owed to staff is rectified as our highest priority."

The company said it had calculated the reimbursements using the highest overtime rate of 200 per cent.

George Calombaris away filming in Japan

Calombaris, who is the MAdE Establishment Group's director and founder, said the company had not adequately managed its enormous growth over the past six years.

"Regrettably our attention to detail at that time wasn't at a level it should have been, but we now have a CEO and Human Resources Manager in place, supported by good processes and systems to properly support the business."

Calombaris, who is the MAdE Establishment Group's director and founder, said the company had not adequately managed its enormous growth over the past six years.

"Regrettably our attention to detail at that time wasn't at a level it should have been, but we now have a CEO and Human Resources Manager in place, supported by good processes and systems to properly support the business."

Former staff who may have been affected by the error have been encouraged to contact the company.

"Every single cent we owed to our existing team we've paid and we've started that journey on our ex-employees," Mr McDonagh said.

Calombaris, 37, began building his restaurant empire in 2006, with the opening of The Press Club on Flinders Street, in Melbourne's CBD.

Specialising in modern Greek cuisine, he has published numerous cookbooks and collected a number of awards over his career.

He became one of Australia's best-known chefs when he took on the role of judge in Network Ten's top-rating MasterChef series in 2009.

He is currently in Japan filming a new season of the show.

Mr McDonagh said the celebrity chef was due back at the end of the week and would speak to staff.

"He's reached out to all the team, he's absolutely in this every step of the way and he's really excited to come back after filming in Japan on Friday and his first plan on Friday is to get out and meet the team and make sure everything is as it should be," he said.

Staff at Jimmy Grants, a souvlaki bar which was launched in 2013 and his since expanded to five different locations in Melbourne, were not affected by the underpayment issue, management said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-...ises-after-restaurant-staff-underpaid/8412852
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Also, MasterChef sucks.
 

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Sounds like a problem with one staff member lead to a wider investigation into the entire payroll system that uncovered significant under payments that have now been paid to the affected workers

Staff who were overpaid have not been asked to repay money

As a director he would also not have been the one actually preparing the payroll so it's not as if he was personally underpaying staff

Not sure why exactly that makes him an a-hole
 
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Yeah I don't think this is a huge deal if he's rectifying his mistakes. I highly doubt he's heavily involved in the this part of his business and I'm sure it wasn't intentional.
 
Prefer him over Matt Preston. So pretentious with those cravat things he wears. And he's not even a chef. He's a "food critic". At least he looks like he's eaten more than enough food to be an excellent critic.
 
Bomberboyokay said:
Underpaying staff by $2.6m. That's quite an accounting 'error' :drunk:



Also, MasterChef sucks.
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Masterchef is the worst. It makes people think they can just do some bullshit tv show for five minutes, and hey presto you're ready to run a kitchen. Lol.
Preparing one dish in one hour is not what chefs do.
 
MEB_ said:
They probably should have taken those steps back in 2015 when it was brought to their attention.
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Sounds like it was just one employee back then that lead to a review/audit of their entire system with some errors going back as far as 2011. So yeah it's taken a while but it seems like it was a thorough review

May well have taken a bit of time to organise the $2.6m as well - that's a pretty big one off hit
 

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Keys said:
Sounds like it was just one employee back then that lead to a review/audit of their entire system with some errors going back as far as 2011. So yeah it's taken a while but it seems like it was a thorough review

May well have taken a bit of time to organise the $2.6m as well - that's a pretty big one off hit
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Oh yeah that's a good point
 
Coles and Woolworths paid their employees below award rates with the explicit agreement of the Shop Workers Union and the assistance of the AWU. In return for the low rates the employer acts as recruiter to the unions and makes payments to union-linked funds. The additional membership numbers boosts the unions influence within the ALP on policy and parliamentary preselections.

While Shorten was head of the Victorian AWU he struck workplace deals with the Cleanevent cleaning company that traded away millions of dollars in penalty rates for low-paid cleaners.

Assholes.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...l/news-story/9386dbeb8285e11c78956139a18026b2
 
the_interloper said:
I saw him up at Sorrento the other summer with his mates, drinking champagne and not very subtly passing their bag of coke to each other under the table.
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Not very discreet. They should have found a dodgy Irish pub in West Melbourne and crammed into the one toilet to do it.
 
the_interloper said:
I saw him up at Sorrento the other summer with his mates, drinking champagne and not very subtly passing their bag of coke to each other under the table.
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My old man saw him exit a toilet cubicle with a female 20+ years younger than him a month ago.

He obviously likes to party.
 
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Spuddage said:
Smaller business, grew too fast, made a big ****up and has now rectified it.

I'm sure they rue and lament underpaying their staff but they have made good.
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Also the hospitality award would arguably be one of the more difficult ones to manage so mistakes would be easier to make

And it's not as if any award is particularly easy to understand in the first place
 
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