Not so righteous now! The ABC STILL hasn’t coughed up payments to 2,500 casual staff – the day after Leigh Sales grilled George Calombaris for underpaying workers $7.8million
- The ABC is still working to resolve the underpayment of up to 2,500 casual staff
- The public broadcaster announced the pay discrepancies in January this year
- Revelation comes the day after Leigh Sales interviewed chef George Calombaris
- Former MasterChef judge has been in hot water for underpaying staff $7.8million
The ABC is still working to resolve the underpayment of up to 2,500 casual staff – the day after Leigh Sales grilled celebrity chef George Calombaris about owing his workers $7.8million.
The public broadcaster announced the discrepancy in January and said they would liaise with the Fair Work Ombudsman to rectify the underpayments.
In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Thursday, an ABC spokesman said: ‘The ABC is going through a thorough process to identify any employees who have been underpaid’.
‘The ABC self-reported this issue earlier this year with the Fair Work Ombudsman and we continue to work with the FWO to finalise the matter.’
In a statement to Daily Mail Australia on Thursday, an ABC spokesman said: ‘The ABC is going through a thorough process to identify any employees who have been underpaid’
A FWO spokesman told The Australian their inquiries are ‘continuing and it is therefore not appropriate to comment further at this time’.
Calombaris broke his silence on his wage scandal in an interview with ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday evening where he pleaded with the public to return to his restaurants.
‘You’re running a million miles an hour being creative, being someone that can inspire the team with food that you’re cooking,’ he said.
‘And you assume that in the back end things are happening at the same speed, but they weren’t.
‘Just know when you come into one of our restaurants, know when you pay the bill, that those – my people – are [now] getting paid and paid correctly.’
The former MasterChef judge was fined $200,000 on July 18 after his hospitality empire underpaid 515 employees over a six-year period.
Calombaris broke his silence on his wage scandal in an interview with ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday evening where he pleaded with the public to return to his restaurants
ABC radio presenter Jon Faine slammed the ABC for the interview on Thursday, which he likened to an advertisement for the celebrity chef.
Faine said on air he was ‘disappointed’ the ABC had agreed to interview Calombaris in one of his own restaurants.
ABC radio host Jon Faine has slammed an interview the national broadcaster conducted with George Calombaris as an ‘ad’
He said the choice of venue had allowed the chef to ‘turn [the interview] into an ad’.
The ABC announced the error in January in a statement seen by Daily Mail Australia.
‘The ABC recently identified that some casual employees have been underpaid,’ they said at the time.
‘A detailed review is underway to confirm how penalties, allowances and loadings should have been calculated and applied over the past six years to about 2500 ‘flat-rate’ casual staff.’
The statement also said the ABC are reviewing its processes ‘to address the issue for the future’.
‘This error should not have occurred, and the ABC apologises to any casual employee who has been underpaid,’ the statement said at the time.
‘The ABC is actively working to remedy this for affected employees as soon as possible.’