Adriano Zumbo Accused By Staff For Not Being Up to Mark With Salary; Details!
Celebrity pastry chef Adriano Zumbo is accused of ripping off workers of Zumbo’s bakery chain by underpaying them, according to reports on A Current Affair on May 2, 2017.
Adriano’s bakery chain employees’ accused him of underpaying them and not paying their superannuation entitlements as well.
Caption: Adriano Zumbo's staff who accused of being underpaid.
Photo Credit: news.com
A young pastry chef, Samantha, who only disclosed her first name, and a staff of Adriano’s bakery chain complained regarding her salary. They stated,
“Basically, on my payslip, it says that I’m being paid to Host Super and my policy number is 123456789. So there’s money being taken out of my pay every week, but I don’t have a policy number, I don’t have an account with Host Super. So where’s my money going? I don’t have an account with Host Super and why haven’t I been paid my super for the past seven months that I’ve been working there?”
Another staff of the bakery, Kate, who also shared only her first name accused that she was paid late and in an incorrect rate. She complained,
"I complained about that by email a lot, But they just say 'we'll pay, we'll pay.'"
Alike, Samantha and Kate, another Adriano's staff, JB, who worked in the kitchen for five months complained,
"I was working as a baker and managing all the team onto orders and everything. I spent five months in the kitchen and it became worse, and worse, and worse, In January, they just decided not to pay overtime. Just like this.
Also, he added,
"They told us, 'We don't pay overtime but we will pay you the normal rate."
Another pastry chef, Alessandra, who requested to withheld her last name, shared that the staff is not paid for the overtime. She divulged,
"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.We need to make it stop because at the end of the day, this is not right. We might be pastry chefs, we love what we do, but we're not going to be treated like we're nothing."
Adriano did a reality show with Channel 7, and his past and present staff had to work behind-the-scenes, which worsened the situation and eventually several colleagues resigned, according to the staff.
"It was the hardest time ever, I remember people crying when they were working because they were so tired."
Regarding the ongoing problem, Adriano Zumbo stated that he is working towards rectifying the problem.
"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 limit number of staff. 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."
A complaint was filed in Fair Work Australia by the frustrated group due to the delayed action on the wage theft matter. And the President of Australian Council of the Trade Unions, Ms. Kearney has spoken regarding the “wage theft.” As per Ms. Kearney,
"We consider this wage theft, this is stealing people's money. If you don't pay them the right amount, if you're not putting money into people's superannuation account, if you're avoiding the Fair Work Act, this is all illegal operations.This actually looks like they're falsifying documents, because it's saying this money has gone into a Host Plus account when it's very hard to see what these accounts are."
We Hope The Matter Gets Resolved soon!
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