Minimum wage: 37 firms shamed for failing to pay
![[Image: The Guardian.]](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/140419hmrcdata.jpg)
It is now easier to report employers who fail to pay the minimum wage. [Image: The Guardian.]
Retail giant H&M and service station operator Welcome Break have been named and shamed for failing to pay the minimum wage – along with 35 other employers.
The firms were exposed after investigation by HM Revenue and Customs. They will be fined a total of £51,000 and must also pay affected staff the £177,000 they were underpaid.
This is not an example of extraordinary work by the Coalition Government, though. It is an example of HMRC actually managing to do its job properly, despite huge cuts to its staff and harm to its working conditions.
HMRC staff are to be applauded for their sterling work; managers less so.
The 37 “named and shamed” employers are as follows:
•Kings Group LLP, Hertfordshire, neglected to pay £53,808.91 to 53 workers
•Kings Group Lettings LLP, Hertfordshire, neglected to pay £26,893.43 to 49 workers
•Chi Yip Group Ltd, Middleton, neglected to pay £15,566.78 to 13 workers
•Kingsclere Nurseries Ltd trading as Abacus Day Nursery, Newbury, neglected to pay £12,904.19 to 8 workers.
•Ms Thap Thi Ly trading as Sweet N Sour, Fleetwood, neglected to pay £11,039.14 to 2 workers
•Michael Kearney trading as Electrical Estimates, Ceredigion, neglected to pay £5,557.91 to 4 workers
•ABC Early Learning and Childcare Centre UK Ltd, Wolverhampton, neglected to pay £5,329.25 to 68 workers
•C J Hartley Ltd trading as Headwork, Sheffield, neglected to pay £4,762.64 to 4 workers
•Mrs Kelly Jayne Lockley trading as Diva Hair Design, Walsall, neglected to pay £4,103.65 to a worker
•Browncow Tanning Ltd trading as Fake Bake Hair & Beauty Boutique, Glasgow, neglected to pay £3,406.66 to 2 workers
•J Wood Joiners & Builders Ltd, Edinburgh, neglected to pay £3,373.19 to 4 workers
•Louise Ross Trading as Luxe Salon, Leeds, neglected to pay £3,368.13 to a worker
•H&M Hennes & Mauritz UK Ltd, London, neglected to pay £2,604.87 to 540 workers
•Building Projects Ltd, Dundee, neglected to pay £2,345.85 to 3 workers
•David A Farrer Ltd, Morecambe, neglected to pay £2,261.00 to a worker
•Julian’s Hair Salon Ltd, Newbury, neglected to pay £2,131.35 to a worker
•Motorists Discount Store Ltd trading as TMS Autoparts, Manchester, neglected to pay £2,025.19 to a worker
•Ms Dawn Platts trading as Level 2 Hair Studio, Barnsley, neglected to pay £1,186.89 to a worker
•Myers and Family Ltd, Wakefield, neglected to pay £1.598.82 to a worker
•Welcome Break Holdings Ltd, Newport Pagnell, neglected to pay £1,318.70 to 19 workers
•Callum Austin Ltd trading as Jason Austin Hairdressers, Kettering, neglected to pay £1,899.66 to 2 workers
•Mrs Karen Riley Trading as Crave, Preston, neglected to pay £1,179.09 to 7 workers
•RPM Performance Rally World Ltd, Maldon, neglected to pay £998.71 to a worker
•Ego Hair & Beauty (Anglia) Ltd, Colchester, neglected to pay £985.55 to a worker
•Mr Jinit Shah trading as Crystal Financial Solutions, Middlesex, neglected to pay £941.65 to a worker
•Counted4 Community Interest Company, Sunderland, neglected to pay £930.73 to a worker
•HAE Automotive Services Ltd, Harrogate (ceased trading), neglected to pay £798.16 to a worker
•Vision on Digital Ltd, Ossett, neglected to pay £683.86 to a worker
•Ultimate Care UK Ltd, Ipswich, neglected to pay £613.79 to 7 workers
•Century Motors (Sheffield) Ltd, Sheffield, neglected to pay £571.72 to a worker
•Mr D Eastwell & Mr G Brinkler trading as The Salon, Letchworth Garden City, neglected to pay £409.85 to a worker
•Rumble (Bedworth) Ltd, Nuneaton, neglected to pay £404.41 to a worker
•Shannons Ltd, Worthing neglected to pay £313.76 to a worker
•Holmes Cleaning Company, Worksop neglected to pay £240.48 to a worker
•Learnplay Foundation Ltd, West Bromwich, neglected to pay £224.73 to a worker
•Adrien Mackenzie trading as Maverick Models, Manchester, neglected to pay £205.52 to a worker
•QW Security Ltd, Hartlepool, neglected to pay £126.20 to a worker
Workers had made complaints to the free and confidential ‘Pay and Work Rights’ Helpline.
The scheme was revised in October 2013 to make it simpler to report employers who do not comply with minimum wage rules.
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The amount if fines is laughable they be doing ut again once they find the excuss they need to rid themselves of these troublesome employees
It’s progress, though.
A work in progress….good post.
“Shamed”? I doubt it!
it’s hard to believe these types of selfish business people even exist in my younger day they would have got a whack round the head at best for being impertinent
Mike brilliant article we need more like this in the national press which won’t happen, thanks for revealing the unscrupulous companies involved.
In the 1970s there were strong trade unions that would bring under-paying firms to a halt. A combination of the Tories hamstringing the unions and all the immigration has ruined that.
Wrong! The very people who where members of a union; in all unions! let there selves be hammered and rolled over to the elitist change that was implemented from (1970) It was ruined by the very people who stood for greed.
I see the majority are small businesses, so it goes back to what I have said previously, they won’t employ anymore staff.
And Jeff is right, I wonder if the “troublesome” employees are still working there?
Also, I appear to have my two previous comments still awaiting moderation.
As Mike says, despite draconian cuts to staff on the National Minimum Wage (NMW) compliance teams within HMRC, the few staff in post are working flat out to bring errant employers to book (I know this because my tribunal appeal team is situated directly behind them) The NMW issue is a very political issue at the moment and I’m sorry to say that these cases represent the tip of the iceberg (it’s a case of volume over quality so that it appears that HMRC are getting to grips with the issue – all mandated by the government of the day of course)
The fines (as some people are referring to them as) which are in fact penalties, are based on legislation within the Finance Act 2009 and is based on the behaviours of the employer and are unable to be amended by ordinary staff.
Great post. But to HMRC – where are the bigger players? So many of these were single employees, or small businesses. Where are those like C*** UK who are fiddling the system by refusing to pay for care workers to travel between clients?
How about the same zeal for the corporations who do not pay their tax????
Now that would be nice!
“neglected to pay” …