George Calombaris pulled from WA tourism campaign in wake of Fair Work decision

"Tourism WA have pulled an advertising campaign featuring George Calombaris after the Masterchef star was found to have underpaid his staff by almost $8 million.

"Calombaris was the focus of a six-month advertising campaign promoting gourmet travel in WA, a campaign launched to capitalise on a WA-themed Masterchef week which aired earlier this season.

"The ads were meant to run through to September, but have been pulled from all television and digital executions following the decision by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

"It is understood Tourism WA will attempt to gain compensation from the celebrity chef’s management.

"Calombaris has faced calls to resign from the program after the Ombudsman’s findings, which saw him fined $20,000 for underpaying his staff by $7.8 million."

greggerypeccary wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2019 at 1:07pm:



Wage theft is a perfect example of how society is structured around a ruling class. You can rob people of millions of dollars and be on the front page of lifestyle magazines looking angelic.

Wage theft is an actual crime. The very real consequence of wage theft is tantamount to slave labour ... and this seems to be considered widely a minor misdemeanour when done by the very wealthy.

As is embezzlement, at the higher end of town.

Recently a mentally ill Aboriginal woman got 3 years for stealing a can of soft drink.

And it's not just the powers that be that judge us so ... ask the common folk who they sit more harshly in judgement of, wage thieves or common criminals.

It's just another sign that capitalism is broken. It absolutely protects and even sanctifies the wealthy while the common person is fuel for the fire.

It's absolutely appalling.

Not only is it not fake news, it's not particularly uncommon.

And just so you actually care, you don't even need to be dark skinned to be treated profoundly unfairly by our judicial system. You just need to be poor.

Or at least, not wealthy.

Do you disagree that white collar crime is punished less harshly than blue collar crime? If it is punished at all?

Do you disagree that wage theft is a serious crime?

Seems you do. Unlike you to suddenly go into bat for the upper echelons. I suppose your racism trumps your classism.

Mr Hammer wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2019 at 6:30pm:



No Hammer. That was my original and overarching point.  I can't help it that you only respond to dog whistles.

My apologies, it was 3 months, not 3 years. I misremebered, probably because the sentence is still outrageous.

3 weeks would be outrageous.

Here:

Woman Imprisoned for Consuming Soft Drink in Store

mothra wrote on Jul 23^rd, 2019 at 6:38pm:

You left out the trespassing charge. It's still excessive unless she was on parole at the time. There's more to this one. She was banned from the shop and might have  had a Apprehended Personal Violence Order put on her. break those and you'll end up in the can.