‘MasterChef Australia’ judge George Calombaris sorry for underpaying restaurant staff by $2.6M

“MasterChef Australia” judge George Calombaris has apologised after it has emerged that his restaurant empire underpaid staff by $2.6 million. His MAdE Establishment Group admitted that it had erroneously managed their employees’ overtime wages for almost six years. It is now working to fix it.

MAdE has found the payroll discrepancies in the calculation for the overtime payments of 162 of its current 430 workers in The Press Club, Gazi and Hellenic Republic restaurants since 2011. The revelation came after the company was first alerted by the Fair Work Ombudsman in 2015.

The issue, however, was not investigated properly until the appointment of Troy McDonagh as the new chief executive of the company in October 2016, according to Fairfax Media. The company then enlisted auditing firm KPMG to conduct a comprehensive review of its system.

“I am so sorry we have messed up and let you down on a fundamental issue, which is to ensure our people are paid their full entitlements,” Calombaris said in a statement. “I am devastated by what has happened, and we have been working extremely hard to fix this.”

The error also resulted in nearly half of the company’s staff members being overpaid their base salary. It told the employees that it would not require them to pay back the overpayment.

For those who were underpaid, however, MAdE has since paid them their due. The company said that it used the highest overtime rate of 200 percent during the computation. Each owed staff is estimated to have had been underpaid by $16,000.

NetworkTen, which airs “MasterChef Australia,” is confident Calombaris’ image remains intact even after the staff underpayment controversy. A rep from the network said the celebrity chef still has the full support of Ten.

“It is ridiculous and illogical to suggest that the issues at MEdE Establishment will affect the performance of the new season of ‘MasterChef Australia,’” the spokesperson said (via news.com.au). “George Calombaris and his team at MAdE are dealing with the incorrect payments made to employees to ensure every affected employee receives their full entitlements.”

Calombaris, as well as co-judges Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan, is currently filming a special week of the show’s episodes in Japan. The trio will be back for a ninth season in the coming weeks.