Wagamama, TGI Fridays, Marriott Hotels and Karen Millen are among the companies named and shamed by the government for failing to pay the legal minimum wage.
The latest list, published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, names 179 employers for failing to pay a record 9,200 workers £1.1m collectively.
The employers had to compensate workers and pay a further £1.3m in fines to the government.
Underpayers also include the football clubs Stoke City and Birmingham City, the rugby union club London Irish, as well as hairdressers, cafes and car wash firms. The restaurant groups Wagamama, TGI Fridays and the fashion retailer Karen Millen, all said the underpayments related to uniform costs.
Wagamama, which had to repay £133,212 to 2,630 workers, making it the worst offender in the latest naming and shaming list, said there had been an “inadvertent misunderstanding” of how minimum wage regulations applied to uniforms.
“In the past we didn’t realise that asking our front-of-house staff to wear casual black jeans or a skirt, with their Wagamama branded top, was considered as asking them to buy a form of uniform and so we should have paid them for it. Lots of other businesses were also unaware of this regulation around casual wear,” a spokesperson said. “We have gladly made payments to current and previous employees who missed out, dating back from 2016 to 2013. We have also updated our uniform policy and we now pay a uniform supplement to cover the black jeans.”
Source:
theguardian
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