Restaurant ‘made mistake’ as firms named and shamed
A SOUTH Wales restaurant, which was named and shamed for underpaying workers, has said it was a “genuine mistake”.
Nearly 240 employers across the UK who underpaid the National Living and Minimum Wage were named by the UK Government yeesterday, with 14 in Wales affecting 64 workers who will now receive back pay totalling more than £20,500.
The back pay identified by HMRC was for more workers UK wide than in any previous single naming list and has generated record fines of £1.97m.
Restaurant James Sommerin, in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, was one of 14 Welsh companies on the list after failing to pay one employee £487.
James and Louise Sommerin, who run the business, said in a statement: “It’s disgusting that the Government can name and shame like this as in our case a genuine mistake was made.
“We had an apprentice and we didn’t realise that when reaching a certain age the pay they receive is altered. As soon as we were made aware of this all back monies were paid straight away, please be aware it was only a month from the change of age. It made us feel physically sick.”
Others on the list were Mr Nicholas James Chan, trading as Riverside Cantonese Restaurant, Cardiff, who failed to pay £346.39 to eight workers, with average arrears of £43.3 per worker and The New Sandon Garage Limited, Cardiff, whichfailed to pay £220.73 to one worker.
Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns called paying less than the minimum wage “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,” said Mr Cairns. “Thanks to the UK Government investigations hundreds of Wales’ lowest paid workers are being back paid every year, as we continue to build a Wales, and wider United Kingdom, that works for everyone.”
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 £26.3m 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 £10.8m in back pay for around 90,000 workers, with more than 1,900 employers fined a total of £8.4m. 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 must 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 £20,000 per worker.