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Indian Feast will leave the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus before the start of semester two, Semper understands.
The outlet will close down over winter break after recent reports that the restaurant was underpaying workers, as well as the discovery of a piece of metal in a samosa.
Semper understands that another Indian food retailer will replace the outlet.
It remains unclear whether Indian Feast’s departure was a result of administrative pressure or a voluntary move by the retailer.
Final year student, Brigitte Ferguson said she stopped buying meals from Indian Feast when she heard the news.
“I found it was a quick and tasty meal in-between classes, though after reading the article about the outlet exploiting their staff, I chose to boycott the company and show my support for those workers” Ms Ferguson said.
When Semper spoke earlier this year with the Director of Property and Facilities, Steve Dickson regarding the formal complaint made by an international student and previous employee, he assured us the university was ‘satisfied’ the licensee’s obligations under the License to Occupy had been met.
Semper then approached Mr Dickson when the evidence provided by the previous employee contradicted these assurances. We did not receive a response.
When Semper spoke with the Director of Indian Feast regarding the evidence, he urged us to consider UQ’s investigation as final.
After our original article, Indian Feast was embroiled in another scandal when a UQ student almost ingested a piece of steel wool found in a samosa.
When journalism student Mark Reeves investigated the story, the manager of the outlet said the food could not have been contaminated on the property, because for the past twelve months they had been buying their stock from a commercial kitchen in Salisbury.
It was then that Mr Dickson expressed his concerns about Indian Feast in correspondence with a student who lodged a previous complaint.
“I too share your concerns with this latest incident and the P&F immediately raised this matter with Brisbane City Council and the state government’s Public Health Unit,” Mr Dickson said.
UQU President Georgia Millroy embraced the news that Indian Feast would not remain on campus in semester two.
“Indian Feast had a long and notorious history of exploiting the students they employed. Many of their employees were international students who didn’t know their rights, or were afraid to speak up. It is clear that Indian Feast was no longer welcome on our campus” Ms Millroy said.
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