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Staff lodge fair work claim on Adriano Zumbo

Employees spill to Nine show claiming they are owed thousands of dollars by celebrity chef.

Employees of Adriano Zumbo have filed a Fair Work complaint in a payment dispute revealed to A Current Affair.

5 employees last night claimed they were owed thousands of dollars by the celebrity chef, who has fronted shows on Seven and SBS.

It was the second time in a month that a TV chef has admitted payment errors in their business, following news on MasterChef‘s George Calombaris.

Aggrieved employees cited unpaid overtime and superannuation, which they claim they raised with management.

“They said to us in a meeting, we will not be paying overtime anymore out aloud to my whole team And the first thing I say is ‘It’s illegal!” staff member Alessandro said.

“At the end of the day, over the last couple of months people who are working in the afternoon would be doing an extra two hours each day and for weeks, for months, they have not been paid for nothing. Nothing can be said, nothing can be done.

“We shouldn’t be treated like this, we shouldn’t be having to fight for our actual rights.”

Adriano Zumbo issued a statement to Nine:

In January 2017 a new overtime system was implemented by my business. As a result, a number of discrepancies were identified in the calculation, approval and payment of overtime to a limited number of staff.

I have personally taken steps to rectify all back pay issues of which I am currenly aware. My expectation and intention is that all outstanding superannuation and the majority of outstanding overtime will be paid as of close of business on 2 May 2017, with the remaining payments to be made over the course of the next 24 to 48 hours.

I confirm that an audit of the payroll system of the business has been commenced and is ongoing. I instigated that audit having learnt about the discrepancies referred to above, in order to identify whether there have been any other issues in the payment of my staff, whose hard work I value enormously. In the event that audit identifies any other discrepancies in payments to staff, those matters will be remedied as soon as possible.

It saddens me to learn that some of my current and former staff did not share their apparent concerns relating to their working conditions with me or our HR department. It seems those staff shared these concerns for the first time with ACA. Had we been aware of these concerns, our HR team and I would have been available to assist those staff members in the satisfactory resolution of their concerns.

My talented team are a credit and an asset to this company are the reason for our continued success. My staff have for years been overwhelmingly passionate about the Zumbo business and always go above and beyond the call of duty to create the best Zumbo products. From the bakery to the chocolatiers, and to all our admin staff and retail employees; every member of this amazing team works tirelessly around the clock to produce delicious desserts for our loyal customers. Many of our staff have been with Zumbo long term and it is to them that I owe my sincere gratitude for the successful family business we are today.

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