Crown Casino restaurant fronted by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is put into liquidation amid claims staff were underpaid millions of dollars
- Fine cuisine restaurant Dinner by Heston is being investigated by Fair Work
- Tipsy Cake Pty Ltd, which owns the restaurant, is accused of underpaying staff
- Company was issued statutory notice to backpay worker entitlements last week
- It previously indicated that it allegedly owed millions of dollars to its workers
The Fair Work watchdog has been forced to intervene in a Australian restaurant fronted by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.
Dinner by Heston, based at Crown Casino in Melbourne and run by Tipsy Cake Pty Ltd, has been accused of failing to comply with a statutory notice to back pay worker entitlements.
The Fair Work Ombudsman issued the notice last month and said the final date for compliance was last Friday.
The company has since put itself in the hands of a liquidator.
Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s Crown Casino restaurant is being investigated by Fair Work over claims its workers have been underpaid. The Masterchef Australia chef sponsored the restaurant, but does not figure as one of the owners
Dinner by Heston in Melbourne, is owned by Tipsy Cake Pty Ltd, a branch of an overseas company not incorporated in Australia. The company previously indicated it owed workers millions of dollars
Previous information provided by the company indicated that it allegedly owed millions of dollars to its workers, Fair Work added.
It said these underpayments would be the result of the company failing to pay weekend and public holiday penalty rates, as well as annual leave loading and overtime rates.
Dinner by Heston is owned by Tipsy Cake Pty Ltd, a branch of an overseas company not incorporated in Australia.
Masterchef Australia celebrity cook Heston Blumenthal sponsored the restaurant, but is one of the owners of Dinner by Heston.
The company failed to comply with its back-pay obligations and instead announced it had been put into provisional liquidation by the Federal Court.
‘Tipsy Cake was aware that a significant amount of wages and entitlements were owing to many workers who had been underpaid,’ Fair Work Ombudsman Sandra Parker said.
‘The circumstances of this matter are disappointing. We will liaise with the provisional liquidator in order to assist the employees to recover their entitlements.’
According to media reports, the Federal Court has given Tipsy Cake until January 3 to notify workers of its situation.
The British-born chef has been featured on MasterChef Australia