George Calombaris' underpaid staff may wait months for wages

Australia's workplace regulator say it's unreasonable that some underpaid staff at MasterChef judge George Calombaris' company still haven't received all their wages.

Calombaris' company Made Establishment referred itself to the Fair Work Ombudsman in April after it was revealed the restaurant and hospitality chain had underpaid 162 staff by $2.6 million.

The celebrity chef wrote to staff to apologise for the management error and assured employees the company would make things right.

Some former staff on Wednesday say they still haven't received all their wages and may be forced to wait until June 2018 to get their money, Fairfax reports.

"The FWO has encouraged Made to finalise the remaining assessments as soon as possible," a spokesperson for the regulator said in a statement.

"While we appreciate that large scale reconciliations can take considerable time and resources, we do not believe it is reasonable for former employees to have to wait this long to receive wages owed to them."