Minimum Wage: Firms 'Named And Shamed'

The Government has "named and shamed" 37 employers, including high street fashion brand H&M and Welcome Break, accusing them of failing to pay the national minimum wage.

It claimed the companies collectively owed £177,000 to their workers in arrears and they faced financial penalties of more than £51,000.

Other businesses named by the Government include a childcare centre in Wolverhampton, a tanning boutique in Glasgow, a building firm in Edinburgh and a cleaning company in Worksop.

The Department for Business said each company was thoroughly investigated by HM Revenue and Customs after workers made complaints to the free and confidential Pay and Work Rights Helpline.

Business Minister Jo Swinson said: "Paying less than the minimum wage is illegal, immoral and completely unacceptable.

"If employers break this law they need to know that we will take tough action by naming, shaming and fining them as well as helping workers recover the hundreds of thousands of pounds in pay owed to them.

"We are also looking at what more we can do to make sure workers are paid fairly in the first place. As well as being publicly named and shamed, employers that fail to pay their workers the national minimum wage face penalties of up to £20,000.

"We are legislating through the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill so that this penalty can be applied to each underpaid worker rather than per employer."

Almost 100 employers have now been publicly named by the Government since a new regime came into force in October 2013.

Unions have been pressing for larger fines against firms found to be paying less than the statutory rate of £6.50 an hour for adults, £5.13 for 18 to 20-year-olds, £3.79 for 16 and 17-year-olds and £2.73 for apprentices.

Sky News is contacting firms identified by the Government for their response.

Service station operator Welcome Break said: "The initial breach was brought to light as an employee complained to the HMRC that her pay rate had not been increased correctly upon reaching her 21st Birthday.

"We worked closely with HMRC during their investigation and following a thorough internal review, it transpired that of our 4500
employees there were 19 further people in a similar position.

"These incidents were not as a result of a decision to withhold an increase but resulted from a combination of factors, specifically, a change of management within the units, periods of holiday and a difficulty with a new IT system and set of management processes."

The company said it had rectified the errors.

An H&M spokesperson said: "Unfortunately due to errors within some of our stores concerning time logging, 540 employees were accidentally underpaid the national minimum wage.

"The average underpayment for those affected was £4.82 in total.

"All such arrears were immediately processed and we accept that the errors should not have occurred."