The companies are among 500 others that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has “named and shamed” for short-changing staff. The list consists of well known companies as well as small businesses and sole traders
Pizza Express, British Airways, and supermarket chain Lidl were just some big names that have been called out for failing to pay staff the minimum wage.
The companies are among 500 others that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has “named and shamed” for short-changing staff. The list consists of well known companies as well as small businesses and sole traders.
HMRC’s investigation found that 60,000 workers were illegally underpaid by companies between 2015 and 2022.
Overall, £7.4million has been repaid to workers. The investigations are now completed and all back-payments agreed, allowing for publication of the full list, a spokesperson for the department said.
All employers listed have since been forced to repay what they owed, and have faced financial penalties of up to 200% of the underpayment.
Capita – one of the government’s biggest suppliers, was top of the list – owing £1.15million to 5,543 workers. This meant individual employees were underpaid about £208 on average.
Capita said it was “inadvertent underpayments” between 2015 and 2021, due to some issues, including adding 25 minutes per week for call centre staff to log in for their shifts. It added: “All owed monies were paid immediately, and we are sorry for any impact this had on colleagues and former colleagues at that time.”
Pizza Express failed to pay £760,702 to 8,470 workers, amounting to about £90 on average. A spokesperson for the restaurant chain said: “Once we were made aware of this historic unintentional technicality, which occurred between 2012 and 2018, we swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified.
“There’s nothing more important to us than fairly and accurately paying our team members.”
British Airways featured on the list for failing to pay £231,276 to 2,165 workers. The company said an audit in 2017 revealed that “we had accidentally, slightly underpaid some of our cabin crew who joined us between 2014 and 2017 during their first two months of employment. We apologised and issued backdated payments several years ago.”
Lidl underpaid 3,423 workers by an average of £83.68, and Halfords underpaid 4,341 staff by £32.44 each.
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A spokesperson for Halfords said: “The rates that we pay our colleagues are competitive and are at or above the minimum wage. However, in 2021 we found some historical work-related costs that should have been met by us as the employer rather than our colleagues. We moved quickly to identify those impacted in order to make the necessary payments. All of the costs involved are now met by the company,” they added.
Virtual Marketing Services (Gibraltar) Ltd recorded the highest average underpayment, owing £11,665.43 to each of its 41 employees.
Justin Madders, minister for employment rights, said: “There is no excuse for employers to undercut their workers, and we will continue to name companies who break the law and don’t pay their employees what they are owed.
“Ensuring workers have the support they need and making sure they receive a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work is a key commitment in our Plan for Change. This will put more money in working people’s pockets, helping to boost productivity and ending low pay.”
Wages in the UK can be confusing as there are several different ones. The two main ones are the government’s National Living Wage and the Minimum Wage. These rates are a mandatory requirement for businesses, so it’s against the law to pay any less.
The National Living Wage is an “obligatory” minimum wage that businesses pay workers in the UK aged 21 and over for each hour they work. The National Minimum Wage is the rate businesses pay those under 21. From April 1, the National Living Wage rose to £12.21 an hour.
There are two different rates for the National Minimum Wage, depending on your age. For 18, 19 and 20-year-olds, it now sits at £10 an hour. For 16 and 17-year-olds, it now sits at £7.55.
You can use the Government’s online calculator here to see if you’ve been underpaid by your employer. It is a criminal offence if employers don’t pay the correct National Minimum and Living Wages to their workers.
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