Firms named and shamed for Minimum Wage breaches
THIRTEEN North West businesses are among more than 90 who have failed to pay their workers the National Minimum Wage and have been named and shamed by the government.
Between them, the 92 companies named owed £1,873,712 in arrears, and cover sectors including hairdressing, contract cleaning, leisure, social care, hospitality and security services.
The regional businesses are:
Abbey House (Cumbria) Ltd, trading as Abbey House Hotel, Barrow-in-Furness, which failed to pay £13,468.47 to 13 employees;
Kiddy Academy Hunts Cross Ltd, Liverpool, which failed to pay £8,297.50 to two members of staff;
Oldham Premier Plumbing Supplies Ltd, Oldham, did not pay £6,270.28 to one employee;
Ocean Dental Ltd, trading as Ocean Dental Implant & Aesthetic Clinic, Manchester, failed to pay £2,819.01 to two employees;
Holly Tree Maintenance Ltd of Bacup, failed to pay £1,839.63 to one employee;
Floorbrite Cleaning Contractors Ltd, Manchester, owed a total of £1,703.26 to 248 employees;
Hard Hat Logistics Ltd, Liverpool, failed to pay £1,695.15 to one employee;
A & G Garages Ltd, Manchester M11, owed £1,197.39 to two staff;
Oltec Group Holding Ltd, Wigan, failed to pay £774.04 to four employees;
The Ship Inn (Pub & Kitchen) Ltd, Chester, failed to pay £529.80 to one employee;
Clear the Red Ltd, Manchester, failed to pay £408.33 to two staff;
Mini Max Tyres Ltd, Stockport, owed £256.56 to one employee and
Mark Andrew Development (MAD) Ltd, trading as The Fitzgerald, Manchester, failed to pay £197.01 to one employee.
Floorbrite, which underpaid more than 200 of its 1,200 staff blamed an error for its breach and said all staff had been repaid what they were owed, which amounted to less than £7 each.
Joint managing director Alex Wyers said: “Unfortunately, due to an error in deducting a one-off uniform cost for new staff members from their first wage, 248 people were slightly underpaid the National Minimum Wage.
“As soon as we were notified of the error by HMRC, all arrears were immediately processed; however we accept that it is regrettable and we have apologised to the staff affected for any inconvenience caused.
“Measures have been put in place to avoid this happening in the future and we have fully cooperated with HMRC to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.”
Business Minister Nick Boles said: ““As a one nation government on the side of working people we are determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage receives it. There is no excuse for not paying staff the wages they’re entitled to.
“Our policy of naming and shaming employers who ignore the law means there are consequences for their reputation as well as their wallets. In April we will introduce a new National Living Wage which will mean a pay rise of over £900-a-year for someone working full time on the minimum wage and we will enforce this equally robustly.”
