Published on : Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Last week, the Fair Work Ombudsman fined the 40-year-old celebrity chef and his Made Establishment Company $200,000. The money has been back-paid to hundreds of current and former staff.
Calombaris showcased in the advertising campaign of Tourism WA Create Your Own Gourmet Escape in WA, which was first aired in the eastern states on MasterChef during WA week earlier this month and was due to run until September.
However on Monday, managing director of Tourism WA, Brodie Carr, explained that the ads with Calombaris had been called off, even though the campaign with MasterChef would continue.
Unions call for George Calombaris to lose MasterChef job after staff underpaid by $7.8m
“We’ve paused all of our work with George for now and we’re talking to his management about recouping some of our costs that we’ve paid him,” Carr told 6PR radio.
“We’ll continue with the campaign that we’re doing with MasterChef but probably not with George.”
“George was just a small element of the whole MasterChef piece.”
He would not disclose the amount Calombaris was paid.
Carr accepted Calombaris’s issues with his restaurants “possibly” should have come up when he was being considered for the tourism role.
The WA premier, Mark McGowan, before explained that working with MasterChef for tourism promotion was ground-breaking but would not confirm the reported $1.2m price tag.
Other efforts for WA recently include bringing the Manchester United soccer team to Perth, direct flights from Japan and Chris Hemsworth’s immensely well-liked quokka selfie on social media.
Tags: masterchef