MasterChef Australia judge George Calombaris has apologised after it was revealed his company incorrectly paid one third of his staff by $2.6 million (NZD$2.8m).
The cooking star cited an administrative mistake for 162 of his 430 team members either being over or under paid, or not being paid overtime, as far back as 2011.
“You, our amazing team, are the key to our success. I am so sorry we have messed up and let you down on a fundamental issue,” he said in a statement.
“I am devastated by what has happened and we have been working extremely hard to fix this. I want to be clear that getting it right means ensuring that every single one of our team members is paid what they are entitled to under the industry award, and that any outstanding money owed to staff is rectified as our highest priority.”
The MAdE Group – of which Calombaris is founder and director – was first notified of the potential issue in 2015, but a recent independent analysis commissioned by the company uncovered the scope of the problem and found “discrepancies with the payroll process determining how employees were classified and how overtime was calculated”.
The average back payment to employees is “just over $16,000 (NZD$17,000)”.
Calombaris, 38, is worth an estimated $7m (NZD$7.6m) and employs staff at four restaurants.
He has been on the judging panel of MasterChef Australia since 2009.
