Ten’s support of George Calombaris is a cop out, and undermines the very show it’s seeking to promote
Firing George Calombaris ahead of the Masterchef finale was never a serious option, suggests Reputation Edge's Patrick Southam. But by standing by him after (another) wage theft scandal, Ten is turning a blind eye to the exploitation of workers in the very industry Masterchef promotes.
Tomorrow night, the 2019 Masterchef Australia winner will be crowned. It should also be judge George Calombaris’ finale.
Last week, Calombaris admitted to underpaying $7.83m in wages and superannuation to 515 workers employed across his restaurant empire.
After a lengthy investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman, his company, Made Establishment, was fined $200,000, and Calombaris was ordered to undertake “speaking engagements to educate the restaurant industry on the importance of workplace compliance”.
It was a shocking revelation, and a very embarrassing one for Network Ten. Calombaris is a repeat offender. In 2017, on the eve of the ninth season of Masterchef, it was revealed the celebrity chef underpaid nearly 200 of his staff $2.6m in wages and overtime.
At the time, he blamed “poor processes” and “lack of attention to detail” for the bungle, which is the same excuse he used last week. In 2017, Network Ten stood rock solid behind its star celebrity chef.
“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. George has the full support of Network Ten,” declared a Ten spokesman.
“He is an integral part of Masterchef Australia and we know viewers are looking forward to welcoming him, Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston back for an exciting and engaging new season of this much-loved and extremely popular show.”
Fast forward two years and Ten still stands by him, although the statement is less enthusiastic.
“George and Made Establishment have reached an agreement with the Fair Work Ombudsman in relation to this matter. George has the support of Network Ten. We will not be making any further comment,” was the official line.
Ten’s PR ‘strategy’ is crude but obvious: Back Calombaris, don’t give the story oxygen in the final week by staying silent, and hope it will all be forgotten by viewers by the time season 12 rolls around.
But this is a massive cop-out by Ten and it doesn’t pass the pub test for several reasons.
Calombaris is one of the biggest names in an industry which is notorious for ripping off staff, who, for the most part, receive very ordinary pay for the long hours they put in.
The nation’s peak union body, the ACTU, said illegal underpayments typically occur in the industry due to a failure to pay legal overtime and penalty rates, and through excessive use of unpaid overtime.
President Michele O’Neil called Calombaris a “serial wage thief” and urged Ten to dump him from MasterChef.
Calombaris is on the record complaining about the cost of penalty rates faced by restauranteurs. In 2012, he said paying staff weekend and public holiday penalty rates was uneconomical.
“And it’s not like they’ve had to go to uni for 15 years,” he said at the time. Nice one, George.
The irony is delicious.
As a judge on Masterchef, Calombaris champions the creativity and work ethic of contestants who want to enter his industry.
Offscreen, he’s been systematically ripping off hundreds of his own staff who have helped make him millions.
Ten would be quietly furious with Calombaris’ latest stuff-up, but dumping him ahead of the peak ratings week of the series was never a serious option. Masterchef is one of the biggest shows on Ten’s low-rating roster.
But by standing by their man, Ten is turning a blind eye to the exploitation of workers in the very industry its show promotes. And the worst offender is one of its judges.
This is why George Calombaris should not return for season 12 of Masterchef Australia.
Granted, Calombaris has repaid his staff over $10m in wages and is clearly apologetic. But he’s a two-time offender who has criticised penalty rates under the Fair Work Act.
Will Ten adopt a three-strikes-and you’re-out policy?
Patrick Southam is a partner at Sydney PR firm Reputation Edge, and specialises in reputation management and crisis communications
topics
Fair Work
George Calombaris
hospitality industry
MasterChef
opinion
Patrick Southam
penalty rates
underpayment
wage theft
Disgraceful behavior, Greedy ,aggressive, stealing from poorly paid restaurant workers and assaulting people. Channel 10 should be ashamed of itself.
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The grand finale of master cheg shoulb be calombares last in master chef.what he did to his former staff is nothing short of “daylight robbery” shame on him.these people were the true unsung heroes who had given their blood sweat and tears for him.george is laughing all the way to the bank at the expense of those he took advantage of.how could he sleep soundly at night i guess some people were born without a conscience.he can fool some people for sometime but not all the time. George will no longer remember for his fancy restaurants mouth watering food he served at the end of the day he will be most rememberef for what he become as a human being who happens to be a serial salary thief to those who are less in life.
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Mr.Southam thanks for the nice article.all the best and God bless
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“Disgraceful” is a very kind word Alan, it’s damn outright malicious intent as far as I am concerned.
What’s that saying, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. Well, the first case was ‘maybe’ acceptable to swallow the excuse, this time? Well, do the words, hell/water/freeze ring a bell.
Not on your life, he should be gone immediately, and as for Channel 10, bloody disgraceful behaviour on their part also.
Just goes to show, yet again, celebrities are in a world of their own when it comes to treatment/law, a paltry $200,000 fine, what a joke.
He should cop at least $1m this time around, and don’t cry that ‘poor me’ paying that pittance they call a wage. Go to the restaurant and see what they charge, it’s all built into costs, that’s for sure.
Bah Humbug, Ban Calombaris instead of Christmas.
Disgusted! Signing off.
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He Cant be all bad he gave one of the contestant`s hes tweezers
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Unfortunately for Ten, Calombaris’ wage theft 2.0 is turning up the heat, so to speak, on one of the channel’s key shows. Ten would be naive to think the coverage is going to go away – exploitation in the hospo industry is likely to become an even bigger story – and it’s not helped with Good Weekend pouring oil on troubled waters with its bizarre choice of cover this weekend – Calombaris discovering meditation or whatever. This week’s finale will be an interesting one for several reasons.
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Disgusting George. The decision to keep George on Masterchef goes against everything Masterchef stands for. Integrity, honesty, unbiased .etc. George should leave or be made forced to leave Masterchef. He doesn’t deserve to be there with the likes of Gary and Matt. What an insult to them to have to stand next to George as a judge. Shame on you George
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Since moving to Australia ive found alot of practices and proceesses that are second nature in the rest of the world are not best practice here. Its behind in alot of ways. Im not saying what happened is right but im saying that it must have been an accounts and payroll department issue.
Show me one chef in the world who knows what goes on in the payroll?
Give the man a break maybe he is shouldering the blame for something that was not directly his fault. We all make mistakes and i dont see his staff getting angry about what happened.
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Easy solution
Everyone stop watching that staged show
Called Master crap
And the judges are in another world
Cheers
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A bit strange you left a crucial part of the story out – George actually identified the underpayment himself (via an audit he had done) and went to the fair work commission with that information and a remediation plan. But that doesn’t fit with your narrative to demonise the guy does it? Really sloppy writing Patrick.
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For all the people pointing pitchforks and waving burning torches at George Calombaris and almost asking for a public flogging, there is one flaw in the argument.
What “crook” in his right mind nicks $7m+ and then himself goes to the authorities and says “sorry, I’ll pay it back”?
If this was systematic and conscious theft on his personal behalf, why put yourself in it? How stupid would you be?
Many, many moons ago I worked for one of the major banks, and it was not uncommon that the one person in the banking system falsifying a`counts to their own benefit (fake loans and accounts and the like) was the very person in charge of this section. Is it not inconceivable that the same thing has happened here? Sure that means there has been a cover up and crookedness has prevailed in the organisation, but if an audit found this out (which I suspect) and therefore the owner (GC) was correctly advised, what he hell is he supposed to do for crying out loud?
Keep covering up?
I love how quick people are to put the boot in when they do not know the full circumstances of a situation (or not thought it through fully as to what the ENTIRE circumstances could be) and call for the hounds of hell to be released.
I wonder in the advertising / marketing industry how many are sitting uncomfortably thinking “There but for the Grace of …”.
Yeah, yeah, the buck stops here and all that stuff. But once discovered he did the right and ONLY thing he could do.
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Times are hard for workers, people need their correct salary, it should nor be stolen from them. George is disgusting and should be fired from chanel 10.
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So he beat the authorities to the punch? So that makes his actions of underpaying staff acceptable and not worthy of demonisation?
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George Calombaris’ name is now mud!! Channel 10, if you continue
to support this money grabbing thief,
your credibility will be in question.
Have cred!!! … sack him from Masterchef. He is disgraceful!
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Just a hunch, but did this article get posted somewhere that people care about this a lot more than the marketing industry typically would?
None of the above comments are speaking to this from a brand perspective, but rather from a hospo-industry/workers’ rights perspective.
That’s not to say they’re right or wrong one way or the other, just seems fishy for this blog’s usual readership.
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It just Absolutely disgusts me how this [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] has now done this twice & is still sitting pretty…I worked in the hospitality industry for over 20 years & it’s a hard thankless underpaid job…most customers were good but the managers/owners are a different story…
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How pathetic is this…I’m sure an Employee wouldn’t survive in his Establishment by stealing “anything”,..!
Yet this guy still earns x-thousands $ judging a Final in a cooking show, which doesn’t even closely reflect the real life of a Chef..or pastry chef..and believe me I’ve come from the bottom up and been in it for 50 years.. Statistically one of “THE” worst paid professions in the world still today(stress, hours, etc.), hmm.. unless one knows how to sell himself and fool dumb people.. Right..?
“WHAT A JOKE”.. on the 10 Network to still put a blind eye to that..
Hated that show when it started..?
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In what world do you think a professional businessman like George gets into the finer details of pay rates, entitlements etc etc, I have no doubt he assembled himself a very experienced and educated HR and Payroll team not to mention financial advisors to do what they should do best and let him go about promoting the businesses and doing what he does best. The buck does not and should not lie on his shoulders, good on him for not throwing people or departments under the bus instead he recognised the issue, apologised, repaid and now lets all move on.
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Why 10 has a problem:
The hard, authoritative, perfectionist George portrays on the show has been completely undermined by his $7million carelessness.
Whatever he says now will be taken with a “grain of salt”.
The contestants and audience will find it hard to respect him. Someone’s sister, brother’s, cousin has been ripped off.
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Whatever the truth is regarding the motivations of George Calombaris, calling him a [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] seems to me inappropriate in a trade media comment section. Mumbrella shouldn’t you be checking this or is “[Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]” acceptable language?
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The brand is George Colambaris.
His portrayal in the show of an authoritative, perfectionist, leader commanding respect is in complete contrast to his careless, unscrupulous actions.
He has lost the respect of viewers and surely future contestants.
Can’t hear contestants saying “Yes, George” now.
No the challenge for Network 10 is to find a replacement.
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Haha, our industry can be so petty and quick to put someone down because we are all so perfect.
BTW, that laughter is sarcasm.
The guy self-reported. He wasn’t caught.
Does it make it right – no (we cannot say we didn’t know it was illegal, even though we may not have known) but taking himself to the authorities once he was aware and accepting the consequences is pretty good, in my opinion.
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I’m with you Spiros!
He has clearly survived the pressure test, time to kick back and eat some gyro.
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You talk of George as a repeat offender. The current situation with 7.8 million being paid back is also from 2017 and came to light at the same time the chef was found to have underpaid nearly 200 of his staff $2.6m in wages and overtime. Just maybe both of these instances were an honest mistake which he has rectified. Would be good to check your facts before implying he did this is 2017 and then again this year!
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If you’d read the original opinion piece, you’d know the brand in question is 10. Nobody in this industry gives a shit about Colombaris’s personal brand… he’s not a publisher.
Now, if your take was on the potential harm to advertisers by buying spots on 10 due to Colombaris’s tarnished personal brand, then cool good point. But that’s not your point.
Seriously, where did you people come from?
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The problem is George’s surname. He should change it to Calom. George Calom would never get fired from Ten.
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Not so fast! I mean it’s not like he’s a banker, or a cricketer or regular guy. He should be punished for whatever it is that people are enraged about.
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What was he thinking / that he rob his workers like that .He has been given a small fine , does he have to pay interest on the money he scammed those employees out of .This has been going on with him for years and channel 10 you should hang your head in shame to think you have still employed this [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] on your show .Really do you think we the viewer is so gullible that we would even follow your show .I gave up watching it the day I found out what this [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] was doing .There is only one thing left for him to do is get out of hospilialy ,really who could taken him seriously now and and if people patronise his restaurant now ,really what are you doing //pay up George
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This! I agree.
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Its not only the wage issue.This man obviously has a short fuse witnessed when he attacked a man at a football game. The way he brow beats contestants when he knows the cameras are on him begs the question on his stability. You do not have to be aggressive to be effective. The judges appear now to be the stars of master chef.
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Perhaps people should get their facts right before writing these articles. This is not a repeat offender situation, it is the same issue but the conclusion of an extensive self audit to ensure all staff are paid in full. Across the 1000’s of employees that George and Made have employed over the years, to do this correctly takes time and thoroughness. How about a discussion around the employment he has created, speak to current staff around the amazing changes to culture and conditions that have been implemented, and how learning from a mistake has lead to George leaving a legacy for the hospitality industry that no one to date has managed to do. And perhaps check some P&L’s of some restaurants and you will find they rarely make millions for the owners. That happens if you are lucky to sell, which George has not done. Such sensationalist writing is irresponsible and unnecessary.
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Wake up and stop being so critical. Master chef is a great show and I am constantly amazed at how good the contestants are. It has encouraged many people to be interested in cooking again. Everyone with a brain knows that all shows have to be presented in a way to entertain the viewers. You are all so ready to criticize George it is amazing you are all so perfect. I am looking forward to finals week to see who wins not to sit and condemn three entertaining judges.
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Absolutely. With extra tzatziki.
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Masterchef is Colambaris is Channel 10.
By the way I didn’t watch the program last night as a protest.
I guess I didn’t see any adds then.
Is it because of Channel TEN or Colambaris.
You decide.
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I would expect no less of channel ten standing by Calombaris or any of t,v networks they treat all there working staff like poo. if your not in management your doomed. Its sad as they may be destroying someone with potential.
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The answer is obvious. Turn off Masterchef and stay away from his restaurants.
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George is a [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]. Channel 10 should be ashamed of themselves promoting a man who steals wages from hard working Australians. I wont watch MasterChef again with him in it. Give the position to a honest reputable chef instead and let this [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy] the flick. If you have to make your money by stealing from others I will vote with my remote and turn off channel 10.
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Hi Gezza,
Fair question. I would argue that underpaying staff $7.8m is more unacceptable than the language Elizabeth used here. I have been editing out the harsher (and more unacceptable) language and accusations used in this comment thread, but did approve Elizabeth’s.
It is a fair point from you though, and it could definitely be argued the phrase doesn’t add to the discussion, so I have removed it (obviously from your post as well).
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Wow, what an overreach!
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Bye Felicia (lynne) – CH10 doesnt care 🙂
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Ban Bad name George Carbisona shouldn’t be famous MasterCheif cooking on channel ten .he start bad temper at the footy and not honest reliable person ,out of tv ban !!!
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Moot point now hey? Coincidence? Possibly. Probably not. I find it all a bit sad.
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It’s hard to fathom why channel 10 hadn’t fired him on very day the revelation surfaced, that he’d been so blatantly greedy, dishonest, deceitful, all the while maintaining a big smile, that to everyone’s new knowledge of who he is, now we all know that’s [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy].
A 200k fine is disgusting for such a deliberate offense that involved many people who trusted him.
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Ambassador for cooking ? or cooking the books !!
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Great quotes from the Leigh Sales interview last night undermining his terrible imitation of sincerity and integrity:
“we have paid everyone back!” – talkback caller on Jon Faine this morning, ex employee, says nope and her colleagues say nope.
“In 2015 we got a letter, I signed that off….” – he got a letter from FWA in 2015 – 4 years ago – asking for an assurance that the right pay was being paid. He signed it and did nothing. 2 years later they discovered – by accident – that o dear we have done something wrong….
If an employee stole money from the boss they would go to gaol, when the boss steals from employees he gets the softest ever interview by ABC. Just…appalling.
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At some point darl you will read to the end of an article and get your facts right. But [Edited under Mumbrella’s comment moderation policy]
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