Future Fund a major beneficiary of Rockpool wages exploitation
21 July 2018
The Age
The federal government’s Future Fund is a major investor in the Neil Perry-fronted Rockpool Dining Group and a direct beneficiary of the widespread underpayment and exploitation of skilled chefs employed there.
An investigation by Fairfax Media has discovered that the Future Fund – the federal government’s sovereign wealth fund chaired by former federal treasurer Peter Costello – has invested $160 million in Quadrant Private Equity No.4.
That private equity fund in turn owns Rockpool Dining Group, which is at the centre of a major wages scandal.
As one of the largest investors, profits and dividends from the Rockpool business will flow back to the Future Fund. The business was expected to make $40 million in profits in 2017/18.
The Fairfax Media investigation has in recent weeks uncovered overwhelming evidence that permanent chefs at Rockpool Dining Group are required to do excessive unpaid overtime, pushing their wage well below the minimum rates of the award, the wages safety net.
Staff were being paid for 38 hours a week while working 20 to 30 hours of unpaid overtime. It meant actual pay some weeks would equate to as little as $15 an hour.
Future Fund chairman Peter Costello
It is a clear breach of workplace law for an employer to require excessive unpaid overtime that pushes wages below minimum rates. The Fair Work Ombudsman is now investigating the high-end restaurant chain.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, through a spokeswoman, would not answer questions about whether the Future Fund should consider labour practices when it invests, saying the fund "operates independently from the government".
A Future Fund spokesman did not respond to questions about whether it considered ethical or labour issues when it invested, saying they were issues for Quadrant Private Equity.
Quadrant executive chairman Chris Hadley said his company was "a shareholder in Rockpool Dining Group alongside management. We are not operators of the business''.
''However, as shareholders we are very focused on ensuring the group provides a fair, equitable and safe working environment and we know that our investors expect the same.''
If any money was owed to employees, it would be paid back in full as soon as possible, he said.
Labor workplace relations spokesman Brendan O'Connor said ethical considerations ''should be front of mind for any Future Fund investments'' and that the Turnbull government had not done enough on wage theft.
''This Liberal government has no genuine commitment to ensuring that underpayment and exploitation of workers aren’t part of companies’ business models,'' he said.
''Scandal after scandal makes it clear that systematic wage theft is widespread, we need to act and the Turnbull government has not done enough.''
The Future Fund is Australia’s $141 billion sovereign wealth fund, set up by Mr Costello as treasurer in 2006 and designed to pay for the unfunded liabilities of the federal government.
Since the first article was published in late June close to 100 current and former chefs and managers have contacted Fairfax Media about underpayment and poor treatment at Rockpool Dining Group.
Hundreds of pages of leaked documents have been provided to underline the group’s dependence on extensive unpaid work by permanent skilled chefs, who are often migrants.
Rockpool Dining Group was formed in late 2016 when chef Neil Perry sold his restaurants for a reported $65 million to a company owned by Quadrant Private Equity.
It owns 16 brands including "premium" eateries Sake and Rosetta, "casual and fun" restaurants including Munich Brauhaus and The Bavarian, as well as the flagship, Rockpool.
Perry remains a shareholder and the group's chief brand and culinary director.
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