Celebrity

‘I’m sorry’: George Calombaris breaks silence over $7.8M underpayment of staff

Jul 31, 2019

George Calombaris has opened up about the underpayment of staff at his restaurant chain in an exclusive interview with ABC's 7.30. Source: Twitter/ abc730

Celebrity chef George Calombaris has finally broken his silence over the shocking $7.8 million underpayment of staff across his restaurant chain, claiming he’s sorry for the incident and takes full responsibility for his actions.

Sitting down for an emotionally charged interview with the ABC’s 7.30 program, in an episode set to air on Wednesday night, the former MasterChef judge opened up about the wrongdoings of his company MAdE and what led to the staggering loss in wages for his employees.

In what was an eventful week, Calombaris was flung into the headlines after it emerged that he had shortchanged members of his staff, leading to him being court ordered to pay a $200,000 fine for his actions, just days before announcing his departure from MasterChef.

Since then he says he has managed to pay back his former and current staff and now, in an exclusive interview with reporter Leigh Sales, Calombaris explained why they didn’t receive their full wages to begin with.

Don’t miss @leighsales’s exclusive interview with George Calombaris tonight on 7.30. #abc730 pic.twitter.com/In6B3n6pny

— abc730 (@abc730) July 30, 2019

The head chef claimed the underpayment was simply an oversight and said he only has himself to blame for the getting to that position.

“I won’t forget that afternoon in 2017 when we sat there with my new business partners after we’d done a full audit for the business and discovered the underpayments,” he explained on 7.30.

“I want to apologise to all my team, both past and present, for the effect I’ve had on them, we’ve had on them. I apologise to them.

“I take full responsibility for this. I’m sorry.”

Calombaris went on to explain that he didn’t have the systems in place to ensure finances were being managed correctly when he opened his first restaurant or a chief executive officer to keep everything in check. The chef claimed it is a mistake they will never let happen again and said he “absolutely adores” his team of hundreds who are still under his employment.

“The thing about 13 years ago, you’re a young chef, 26 years of age, you want to open your first restaurant, you get in touch with three other partners at that point and you open the first one, then the second one opens, the third one, the creativity is flying, the ideas are flying, the dreaming is there,” he explained during the chat with 7.30.

“But the sophistication in the back end wasn’t there.”

Adding: “We aren’t closing our restaurants, we’re here. And it’s my job as their leader to keep pushing forward and keep speaking this message, not shying away from the mistake we made, but also acknowledging that we fixed it.”

Calombaris’ comments come after former MasterChef winner Adam Liaw weighed in on the debate of underpayment in the hospitality industry, claiming jail time would be an acceptable form of punishment for restaurateurs who fail to pay their workers substantial amounts. Appearing on ABC’s Q&A earlier this week, Liaw admitted more needs to be done to ensure workers are treated fairly.

While he didn’t mention Calombaris specifically, the winner of MasterChef 2010, who claimed to be underpaid himself throughout his career, said time behind bars was essential for those who wrong those within the industry.

Should there be prison sentences for industrial scale underpayment of wages? #QandA pic.twitter.com/ysioSpdJsJ

— QandA (@QandA) July 29, 2019

“The deterrents in terms of increasing penalties and putting people in prison for doing large scale systematic wage theft is certainly something that definitely should be on the table,” he explained on the Monday night’s program.

Liaw added: “If the goal is truly to resolve systemic underpayment of staff in hospitality we need to look at other issues where we can help businesses to do this as well. The awards for hospitality are difficult, we could look at simplifying that, we can look at making that more accessible for people who don’t have large payroll facilities and large payroll operations.”