Merivale, owned by billionaire Justin Hemmes, has denied the allegations.
In a statement, Merivale said for decades it had consistently delivered impressive venues. The company said it was proud of the thousands of staff who strive to offer the best to its customers.
“We do not require the validation of the Good Food Guide to continue to do so and thrive,” the company said.
Merivale accused this masthead and Good Food of making vexatious assertions which it claimed were investigated by Kate Eastman, SC, and were found to be unsubstantiated. The company said there have been no other adverse findings regarding those allegations.
Merivale has declined to publicly release the Eastman report and said it was subject to legal professional privilege.
“In contrast, SMH and Good Food’s publisher, Nine Entertainment, has been found by an independent report to have a workplace with systemic issues with abuse of power and authority, bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment,” Merivale said in a statement.
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Nine publicly released its report into inappropriate workplace behaviour at the company last year.
Merivale previously had four restaurants with two hats in the guide, including Bert’s Bar & Brasserie, Fred’s, Mr. Wong and Mimi’s. It also had six establishments with one hat, including Bar Totti’s, Good Luck, Hotel Centennial, Ms.G’s, MuMu, Uccello, and Totti’s in Lorne, Victoria.
The company is also under investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Eight former Merivale chefs recruited from Mexico, including Rodrigo Zavaleta and Rodrigo Santos, claim they were overworked, underpaid and racially discriminated against while working for the hospitality group, which owns property worth an estimated $3 billion.
Last November, Merivale agreed to pay $19.25 million to more than 2800 current and former staff who alleged they were underpaid under an invalid employee enterprise agreement between December 2013 and December 2019.
The payment settled a five-year class action lawsuit launched by Adero Law in 2019 which alleged Merivale underpaid as many as 14,000 staff up to $129 million over six years. The hospitality group did not admit any wrongdoing.
In June, this masthead revealed allegations Merivale was still effectively forcing staff to work at least one day per week free under a company-wide policy initiated from at least July 2024 and threatened to “pull lists of staff members” who were not hitting those hours.
In response, Merivale’s lawyers said its “employees receive pay that meets or exceeds the relevant award entitlements”.
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Merivale is the second major hospitality company to be dropped from the Good Food Guide.
The Swillhouse group, which runs high-profile restaurants including Caterpillar Club, Le Foote and Restaurant Hubert, was excluded last year after this masthead revealed claims of sexual harassment, widespread drug use and employees being marginalised for reporting sexual assaults.
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