11 NI companies fail to pay National Living and Minimum Wage
Roe Park Resort in Limavady were on of the employers on the list.
Last updated 6th Jul 2018
11 employers in Northern Ireland have been fined after it was discovered they were failing to pay the National Living and Minimum Wage to their staff.
In total, over ÂŁ38,000 was underpaid to workers in Northern Ireland withing the 11 firms.
The HMRC found that employers underpaid workers by taking deductions from wages for uniforms, underpaying apprentices and failing to pay travel time.
239 employers across the UK were found to have underpaid 22,400 UK workers by a total of ÂŁ1.44m.
The back pay identified by HMRC was for more workers than in any previous single naming list and has generated record fines of ÂŁ1.97m.
The earliest underpayment dated back to 2011, with the most recent happening this year (2018).
The 11 employers in Northern Ireland are listed below -
Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said:
“Our priority is making sure workers know their rights and are getting the pay they worked hard for. Employers who don’t do the right thing face fines as well as being hit with the bill for backpay.
“The UK’s lowest paid workers have had the fastest wage growth in 20 years thanks to the introduction of the National Living Wage and today’s list serves as a reminder to all employers to check they are getting their workers’ pay right.”
The top 5 reasons for National Minimum and Living Wage underpayments in this round were:
· taking deductions from wages for costs such as uniforms
· underpaying apprentices
· failing to pay travel time
· misusing the accommodation offset
· using the wrong time periods for calculating pay
Low Pay Commission Chairman Bryan Sanderson said:
“It is crucial that employers understand their responsibilities and workers know their rights around the minimum wage. That is why active enforcement and effective communication from Government is so important.
“It is therefore encouraging to see that HMRC has recovered unpaid wages for the largest number of workers yet in this round of naming and shaming. I’m confident that the Government will continue to pursue underpayment of the minimum wage vigorously."
Funding for minimum wage enforcement has more than doubled since 2015, with the government set to spend ÂŁ26.3m in 2018/19.
The scheme is in its fifth year and calls out employers who have fallen foul of minimum wage laws, so far identifying ÂŁ10.8m in back pay for around 90,000 workers, with more than 1,900 employers fined a total of ÂŁ8.4m. HMRC has launched a series of webinars, available on GOV.UK, to help employers check that they are complying with the law.
The government is currently running a campaign to raise awareness of the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates, which increased on 1 April 2018, as well as encouraging workers who have been underpaid to complain to HMRC. The campaign website has had more than 600,000 visits since the campaign kicked off on 1 April.
Employers who pay workers less than the minimum wage have to pay back arrears of wages to the worker at current minimum wage rates and face financial penalties of up to 200% of arrears, capped at ÂŁ20,000 per worker.
For more information about your pay, or if you think you might be being underpaid, get advice and guidance at www.gov.uk/checkyourpay. Workers can also seek advice from workplace experts Acas.