“Wage thief” George Calombaris has finally fronted up to his mistakes. In a preview for ABC’s 7:30 (airing tonight), the celebrity chef breaks his silence on the recent scandal he’s been embroiled in which includes being slapped with a $200,000 “contrition payment” for underpaying his restaurant staff by a staggering $7.8 million. On top of that, he’s been sacked from MasterChef Australia and lost a sponsorship deal with WA Australia.
WATCH:George Calombaris fights back tears over wage thief scandal
“It takes a long time to build a reputation, in your case 25 years of work, and you can lose it in a week,” host Leigh Sales says to the shamed restauranter. “What has been the toll of that on you?”
Staring at the ground for a long period of time, a tearful George finally looks up and says: “I love this industry, I really do, and I love every opportunity that it’s given me.”
On Monday night, former MasterChef Australia contestant Adam Liaw appeared as a panellist on Q&A where he slammed his former TV mentor George for underpaying his staff, arguing there are “no excuses” for restaurants that rip off their workers.
Responding to a question about the recent scandal involving Calombaris— who was recently slapped with a $200, 000 fine for underpaying his staff— Adam said he believes “jail time should be on the table” for people who commit wage theft”.
“People should be paid the legal wage to which they’re entitled,” said Liaw who won the second season of MasterChef Australia in 2010. “The question came up this week about whether or not [wage theft] should be criminal and to that I would say ‘why not?’ It’s a form of fraud and dishonesty.”
WATCH: Adam Liaw says prison should be on the table for wage thieves
He continued: “Increasing penalties and putting people in prison for doing large-scale systemic wage theft is certainly something that should be on the table.”
“Should some of these chefs be locked up?” guest host Fran Kelly asked.
“Mum and Dad restaurants that couldn’t keep across the complexities of the award wage system were the ones that were paying below the award wage.
Earlier this month, the Fair Work Ombudsman found Calombaris’ MAdE Establishment company had underpaid 515 of their staff by a staggering $7.8 million in wages and superannuation from 2011 to 2017.
After news broke of the scandal, Orlaith Belfrage, a former waitress at Calombaris’ Hellenic Republic told The Project that the amount the TV star owes is actually a lot more, and she personally is still owed “anywhere between three and four thousand dollars”.
Belfrage explained that while working for Calombaris, she was incorrectly labelled as a casual worker, therefore missing out on overtime wages that a full-time worker is privy to.
“For my overtime, it was just explained that that was just how it is, and I can just suck it up and work the job, or leave,” she told the panel. “And I definitely think that this is systemic across the entire industry.”
She continued: “I completely believe there’s more to come. I personally have money owing to me. There’s a group of people I used to work with that I’m in contact with still that haven’t been contacted by this second or third wave of media around the MAdE establishment wage saga.
Although reports claim his staff have been repaid, the scandal lingers with the embattled chef not only out of his WA tourism gig, but now out of TV as well.
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