TV

Former ‘MasterChef’ Winner Adam Liaw (Correctly) Reckons Wage Thieves Should Go To Jail

Wonder if he's thinking of anyone in particular...

by Tom Clift  30 July 2019
Adam Liaw on Q&A

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2010 MasterChef winner Adam Liaw told last night’s Q&A that jail time should be “on the table” for people who commit large-scale wage theft… not that he’s thinking of anyone in particular.

Liaw was responding to a question about the recent scandal surrounding former MasterChef judge George Calombaris, who was recently found to have underpaid staff in his restaurant empire by more than $7.5 million. Bit awkward for Liaw, who owes his celebrity to MasterChef, and is reportedly in the running to fill one of the vacant judge slots on the show after Calombaris, Matt Preston and Gary Mehigan all quit over, get this, a pay dispute. Still, he did his best.

“People should be paid the legal wage to which they’re entitled,” said Liaw. “The question came up this week about whether or not [wage theft] should be criminal and to that I would say ‘why not?’ It’s a form of fraud and dishonesty.”

“Increasing penalties and putting people in prison for doing large-scale systemic wage theft is certainly something that should be on the table.”

“Should some of these chefs be locked up?” asked guest host Fran Kelly.

“I cannot comment,” chuckled Liaw.

Liaw also suggested that the award system should be simplified, saying that in his experience it was often “the smaller organisations, the mum and dad restaurants that couldn’t keep across the complexities of the award wage system” who ended up underpaying their employees.

Not that that’s an excuse for old mate George.