And this was after the FWO had information to 27 stakeholders, worked in conjunction with the Australian Hotels Association, and sent over 7880 educative letters to employers in the hospitality sector. An audit of the Hospitality sector conducted by the Office of Fair Work Ombudsman in 2009 found that 33% of audited businesses were found to have breached award conditions. Of course, I’m pleased that Calombaris is complying with minimum award conditions. So if George is paying $40 an hour, perhaps he has recognised that in order to attract quality staff, an employer must offer a rate of pay more generous than his or her competitors. A casual with the same trade qualification would receive $31.61, a rate which includes their casual loading and removes any entitlement to any guarantee of hours, and any holiday or sick leave. For working on a Sunday, anytime between 12 in the morning and 12 at night, the rate is $27.09.
So when The Power Index reported that Calombaris had ‘launched a spray at the Gillard government’s Fair Work Act, claiming that public holiday and weekend penalty rates have the potential to force his new restaurant venture to the wall,’ I just couldn’t figure where Calombaris had gotten his information from.įirstly, the minimum wage for full-time trade-qualified (four year apprenticeship) wait staff and chefs under the modern Restaurants award is $18.06 an hour. Lots of people have been looking at them for a very long time. ‘So our labour laws are something that need to be looked at and we keep talking about it.’ It’s really difficult to stay open and we only do it because of tourism but the reality is it’s uneconomical,’ he said. ‘The problem is that wages on public holidays and weekends greatly exceed the opportunity for profit … it’s just not a good business practice to be paying penalty rates. Yesterday, web pages were aflutter with comments by celebrity chef George Calombaris about the high cost of paying staff to work on weekends.Īn article in The Power Index reported Calombaris complaining that he’s looking down the barrel of paying his restaurant staff ‘$40 an hour on Sundays … and it’s not like they’ve had to go to uni for 15 years’.
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