A number of well-known British businesses, including Pizza Express, Lidl, British Airways, and Capita, have been identified by the government for failing to pay some employees the minimum wage.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has released a list of 518 employers that underpaid nearly 60,000 workers over several years.
The underpayment meant that pay for some staff fell short of the national minimum wage, or the national living wage, which is what the government calls the minimum wage for those aged over 21.
Capita, a major government supplier, topped the list, owing £1.15 million to 5,543 workers. This equates to individual employees being underpaid by about £208 on average.
A spokesman for Capita said it was “inadvertent underpayments” between 2015 and 2021, due to some issues including adding 25 minutes per week for call centre staff to log in for their shifts.
“All owed monies were paid immediately, and we are sorry for any impact this had on colleagues and former colleagues at that time,” the company added.
“Our processes and systems were updated to ensure there would be no further issues; we have continued to monitor them carefully, as well as any changes to employment regulations.”
Pizza Express failed to pay £760,702 to 8,470 workers – amounting to about £90 on average.
A spokeswoman for Pizza Express said: “Once we were made aware of this historic unintentional technicality, which occurred between 2012 and 2018, we swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified.
“There’s nothing more important to us than fairly and accurately paying our team members.”
Lidl was also high on the list, having owed £286,437 to 3,423 employees.
And British Airways was named for failing to pay £231,276 to 2,165 workers.
A spokesman for BA said: “Back in 2017, an audit revealed we had accidentally slightly underpaid some of our cabin crew who joined us between 2014 and 2017 during their first two months of employment.
“We apologised and issued backdated payments several years ago.”
Meanwhile, smaller groups of employees were underpaid larger sums by some British companies – such as hotel chain Hilton UK which underpaid 20 members of staff an average of £946 each.
Restaurant chain Prezzo, motoring and cycling retailer Halfords, and travel group Tui were also found to have been underpaying some workers over several years.
All the workers left short will be repaid a combined £7.4 million, following investigations by HMRC between 2015 and 2022.
The national living wage was £11.44 in the year to the end of March, and has risen to £12.21 since April.
The minimum wage for 18-20-year-olds rose to £10 this year, and for those aged under 18 it rose to £7.55.
Justin Madders, the minister for employment rights, said: “There is no excuse for employers to undercut their workers, and we will continue to name companies who break the law and don’t pay their employees what they are owed.”
The Government said that not all minimum wage underpayments are intentional, but those who do not pay staff correctly will be penalised.
The businesses named on Thursday faced financial penalties of up to 200% of the total amount they underpaid.
Lidl has been contacted for comment.
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