The drama surrounding Menlyn's swanky and underfire Babel restaurant, which resulted in a joint operation that led to arrests, poured into Ocean Basket who were accused by the Department of Labour of owing R813,000 to staff in unpaid wages.

Babel came under the microscope after a young former waitress, Mihlali Nobavu, blew the lid about how the restaurant was allegedly exploiting workers and only paying them off tips. The nearby Ocean Basket appears to have been caught in the middle as three of the people arrested on Sunday were all from Babel, while a fourth person, was an undocumented delivery driver who had been picking up a meal order at Ocean Basket.

Ocean Basket is now seeking a meeting with senior officials from the Department of Labour to address the claims that they owed staff and to illustrate how they owed staff.

Ocean Basket chief executive officer Grace Harding told IOL their house was inorder, that they were compliant in terms of the national minimum wage, their staff was legally documented and that they were making the necessary payments to staff and to the Unemployment Insurance Fund, for their benefits.

Harding said they had conducted their investigation using an independent labour lawyer, and internal auditors, while they also had sworn affidavits from staff confessing to receiving their wages.

“No money is currently owed to any staff members,” said Harding. “We can find no evidence to substantiate those claims.”

Like the under-fire Babel restaurant, the department alleged Ocean Basket did not pay waiters and waitresses a basic wage, calculated at the minimum wage of R27.58 per hour. It said waiters and waitresses at both establishments relied on tips and commissions only.

“At Ocean Basket, the waitresses were also remunerated on tips and commissions. The amount the employer owes the employees, R813 969,” said Thobeka Magcai, the spokesperson for the Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth.

“We don’t want to fight. If we all want to succeed, we must work together. If someone breaks the law, tell us, but we cannot just be told in a statement that we owe R800,000.

“When this claim was made, we went to the restaurant, we checked everything, everything is in order,” she said.

“I don’t want to fight, all I want to say is let’s work together, nicely. If anything is illegal or wrong, inform us and we will take action,” said Harding, who said their staff were paid in line with the prescripts of the law and the relevant bargaining councils.

“It’s really okay for the department to do the inspections, ut I don’t want people to be horrible to my staff. Let’s give people fines when they don’t abide by the law, but let us work together, we have over 4,000 employees that depend on this business,” she added.

Harding explained that they were compliant with the minimum wage, but explained that some of their staff like waiters and waitresses, were paid on a commission structure

“In the event that commission earned falls below the minimum wage - in relation to the number of hours a person has worked - a top-up amount is provided to get them to the minimum wage per hour.

“Tips are over and above commission earned. It is a separate payment that is made on top of commission,” said Harding.

Harding has called on the department for a meeting to understand the situation at hand and they can work together.

“Absolutely no contact has been made or documentation supplied to us by the Department of Labour as evidence of where they got the figures they released to the media or to ask for our co-operation in resolving this,” said Harding.

“We need to review where they got their data from and understand their current procedures.

“We are concerned that they issued a media release without first discussing any findings with us. These actions have had a detrimental effect on our brand’s credibility and reputation.”

IOL has reached out to the department and has been assured of a response from the Provincial Chief Inspector upon his return to the office. The chief inspector was understood to be conducting further blitz around the province after the viral video from young waitress, Mihlali Nobavu, sparked officials into action.

– Additional reporting by Sihle Mlambo

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