191 Employers Named And Shamed For Failing To Pay National Minimum Wage

One Stop Stores Limited and John Lewis plc are amongst 191 employers who have been named and shamed for failing to pay their employees at least the national minimum wage and national living wage.

Named And Shamed

A total of 191 employers have been named and shamed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for various breaches of the requirement to pay employees the national minimum wage and national living wage. The list includes organisations such as One Stop Stores Limited, John Lewis plc, Pret A Manger (Europe) Limited, The Body Shop International Limited, Welcome Break Holdings Limited, Martin McColl Retail Limited, and Charlton Athletic Football Club.

34,000 workers were found to have been underpaid £2.1 million by the 191 companies and organisations named and shamed, with £3.2 million in fines being imposed

The top 10 of the 191 employers named and shamed on the list were as follows:-

1. John Lewis plc – 19,392 workers were underpaid a total £941,355.67
2. Martin McColl Retail Limited – owed £258,047.80 in back pay to 4,366 workers
3. One Stop Stores Limited – 2,631 workers were underpaid a total of £56,505.04
4. Welcome Break Holdings Limited – £49,031.77 was owed in back pay to 1,591 workers
5. Sword Security (N.I.) Ltd (now under new ownership) – 160 workers were underpaid a total of £44,280.74
6. The Body Shop International Limited – £34,670.81 was owed as back pay to 959 workers
7. Methodist Homes – 6 workers were underpaid a total £29,244.25
8. Britannia Jinky Jersey Limited, t/a Pontins – £29,027.33 was owed in back pay to 954 workers
9. Millenium Care Ltd – 40 workers were underpaid a total of £28,871.77
10. KRM Limited, trading as First Steps Day Nursery – £28,378.70 was owed in back pay to 25 workers

Policy Resumption

The policy in which employers are named and shamed had been conducted every quarter up to July 2018. No naming and shaming list then appeared for around 2 years whilst a review was carried out by the Government, and the Government's energies were consumed by all things Brexit. The policy then resumed in 2020, with changes to the policy taking effect from the 6th April 2020, the changes being:-

• The arrears threshold at which employers can be named and shamed was increased from £100.00 to £500.00.
• As well as paying back pay, employers now face fines of up to 200% of the arrears
• The meaning of ‘salaried hours‘ has been broadened under Regulation 21(5) of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015. Previously, to be classified as ‘salaried hours‘, a worker had to be paid an annual salary in equal weekly or monthly instalments for a set basic number of hours each year. Following the amendment, the definition has been expanded to mean workers receiving an annual salary in equal instalments for a set number of contracted hours. This change will allow workers whose hours vary, such as those in the care sector, to be classified as ‘salaried hours‘ workers. Employers can now also choose their own calculation year.
• Where a salary sacrifice scheme, deductions scheme, or benefits scheme takes employees wages below the national minimum wage, the employer will still have to pay back arrears, but the employer will not be subject to naming and shaming, and will not face any fines. This measure was introduced following a number of high profile cases in which employers encountered problems, including those involving Iceland Foods Ltd and Middlesbrough Football Club.

Employers Named And Shamed React

In response to being included in the named and shamed list, and topping the list, a representative for John Lewis plc stated: "We’re surprised and disappointed that BEIS has chosen to report this today. This was a technical breach that happened four years ago, has been fixed and which we ourselves made public at the time. The issue arose because the Partnership smooths pay so that partners with variable pay get the same amount each month, helping them to budget. Our average minimum hourly pay has never been below the national minimum wage and is currently 15% above it."

Meanwhile, a representative for One Stop Stores Limited said in a statement: "This is an historic issue relating to our colleague uniform policy that occurred between May 2013 and December 2017. All affected colleagues were reimbursed. We are very sorry this happened and have worked cooperatively with HMRC throughout this process. The average reimbursement was less than £22."