CELEBRITIES – AUSTRALIA

Recipe for disaster: TV chef’s empire crashes

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Original article by John Ferguson, Rachel Baxendale
The Australian – Page: 1 & 6 : 11-Feb-20

KordaMentha has been appointed as the voluntary administrator of 22 businesses in the Made Establishment Group, which was founded by celebrity chef George Calombaris. KordaMentha has issued a statement in which it notes that the business had been impacted by a wage underpayments scandal in 2017, which resulted in Made Establishment being fined $200,000 by the Fair Work Commission. The collapse of Made Establishment will result in hundreds of jobs being lost, with most of its restaurants having already ceased trading.

CORPORATES
MADE ESTABLISHMENT PTY LTD, KORDA MENTHA AND COLLEAGUES PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION

At $200k, celebrity chef got off lightly

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 4 : 22-Jul-19

Attorney-General Christian Porter says that amongst other things, the federal government’s review of the industrial relations system will look at whether the penalties for underpaying wages are sufficient. He says many Australians would agree with his opinion that the $200,000 fine to be paid by celebrity chef George Calombaris was lenient. More than 500 employees at Calombaris’s restaurants were collectively underpaid some $7.8 million over six years. The ‘MasterChef’ judge says the majority have now received backpay.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. ATTORNEY-GENERAL’S DEPT, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

Celebrity chef underpayments triple to $7.8m

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Original article by David Marin-Guzman
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 8 : 19-Jul-19

The Made Establishment restaurant business of celebrity chef George Calombaris will pay staff more than $7.8 million in back pay under an agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman. The amount is more than triple the $2.6 million that Made Establishment had estimated in 2017 that it might owe, while it will also pay a fine of $200,000. Unions have criticised the modest fine, while Hospo Voice union leader Orlaith Belfrage, who worked for Calombaris’s Hellenic Republic restaurant, says he should be taken off reality-TV program ‘Masterchef’.

CORPORATES
MADE ESTABLISHMENT PTY LTD, AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK OMBUDSMAN, HOSPO VOICE