Teage Ezard under fire for culture of unpaid overtime
Chef Teage Ezard’s restaurant business has been significantly underpaying permanent staff through a culture of unpaid overtime, according to an investigation by The Sunday Age.
The chef’s flagship restaurant Ezard, as well as well-known restaurant Gingerboy, have been accused of working chefs up to 60 hours a week pushing pay down to as little as $15 an hour for some chefs, according to leaked rosters and pay slips.
The underpayment for one chef has been estimated at more than $20,000 a year, or as much as $40,000, according to a recent complaint lodged with the Fair Work Ombudsman.
The report said some chefs had talked of a “macho” working environment with "swearing at people all the time".
However, Ezard said the business paid salaries according to a "buy out" principle that pays a 25 per cent higher hourly rate to compensate for penalties and overtime.
"If our reconciliations demonstrate that the salary paid insufficiently compensates an employee, the company will pay the difference," he told The Sunday Age.
"It would be misleading to say that our employees work unpaid overtime given it is an arrangement expressly permitted by the award," he said.
Sheridan Randall, 18th February 2019
