Capita Business Services, PizzaExpress, British Airways and Lidl are among 518 employers named by the government for underpaying the national minimum wage.
The Department for Business and Trade announced today that nearly 60,000 workers had been left out of pocket for minimum wage underpayments totalling £7.4 million, as part of its “latest move to make work pay”.
However, high-profile employers on the list, including Capita, PizzaExpress and BA, told Personnel Today that their underpayments date back as far as 2012 and that repayments were made, in some cases, several years ago.
Employment rights minister Justin Madders 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.”
Baroness Philippa Stroud, chair of the Low Pay Commission (LPC), said: “Underpayment leaves workers out of pocket and disadvantages the majority of employers who do abide by the rules.
“These naming rounds play an important part in ensuring that all workers receive their full wages and that they are aware there is support for them to ensure that they do.”
Other high-profile employers on the list include Prezzo, Halfords, and TUI UK Retail. While not all minimum wage underpayments are intentional, the government said it is clear that enforcement action will be taken against employers who do not pay their staff correctly.
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The 518 employers named today have since paid back what they owe to their staff and faced financial penalties of up to 200% of their underpayment. The investigations by HMRC concluded between 2015-2022.
A Capita spokesperson said: “These inadvertent underpayments related to the 2015-2021 period.
“All owed monies were paid immediately, and we are sorry for any impact this had on colleagues and former colleagues at that time. Our processes and systems were updated to ensure there would be no further issues; we have continued to monitor them carefully, as well as any changes to employment regulations.”
Capita explained that the underpayments were due to a small number of issues, including how employees used salary sacrifice schemes, and the addition of 25 minutes per week for contact centre staff to log in for their shifts.
Capita contacted all the staff affected, including those who had left, and resolved the situation immediately. It added that the firm’s minimum wage was now £12.33 per hour, exceeding the national living wage of £12.21.
A PizzaExpress spokesperson commented: “Once we were made aware of this historic unintentional technicality, which occurred between 2012-2018, we swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified. There’s nothing more important to us than fairly and accurately paying our team members.”
A spokesperson for BA said: “We’re among a large number of companies included in a list relating to the national minimum wage, published by the Department for Business and Trade.
“Back in 2017, an audit revealed 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.”
Personnel Today approached Lidl for comment, but had not heard back at the time of publication.
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