More than 200 UK companies have been named and embarrassed for failing to pay lower bills

More than 200 companies have been named and embarrassed by the cabinet for failing to pay lower bills, including groups such as Mitie, the Go-Ahead shipping company and Greencore the food manufacturer.

The Department of Business Administration on Wednesday said the unions were ordered to reimburse workers and faced penalties of about $ 2m for violating laws in which about 12,000 workers paid less than they received.

Overall, 208 businesses were cited by the government as failing to pay workers about £ 1.2m “in clear violation of international wage regulations”.

Businesses found to be in violation of the tax code face fines of up to 200 percent of their loans to the government. A survey of HM Revenue & Customs took place between 2014 and 2019. Since 2015, the government has ordered employers to pay workers more than £ 100m for 1m employees.

Companies that were found to have fewer employees included Greencore, which failed to pay £ 12,022 to 602 employees; Fraser real estate agent, who under previous ownership failed to pay £ 16,235 to 354 employees; and London General Transport Services, businesses such as Go-Ahead London, which failed to pay £ 16,316.91 to 101 employees.

HMRC found Hays employers failed to pay $ 8,987 to 450 employees, while Mitie paid less than $ 17,893 to 91 employees.

Although the list included a number of multinational businesses as well as street names, most companies are small and in consumer-focused industries, such as hotels and restaurants, where workers are often paid almost the minimum wage. .

Some businesses that have been shown to be low-income employees are in day care centers and day care centers.

The largest pay was for Challenge Network, a charitable organization that is now on the verge of collapse, which was found to have failed to pay £ 154,682 to 3,600 employees.

“We want workers to know that we are on their side and that they should be treated fairly by their employers, so paying a legitimate salary should not be negotiated with businesses,” said Trade Minister Paul Scully.

Greencore said he “paid a small fee to some of his former colleagues for misconduct in the administration of the administration and in the calculation of the deductions”.

Go-Ahead said that according to a practice that ended in 2018, he withdrew money “from a few employees to repay a student loan because he left the business within 12 months”.

It added: “Although the costs involved were small and were repaid over a long period of time, this led to a breach of the law. We are sorry for this and we apologize to those affected”.

The Frasers Group said it had bought the House of Fraser property out of stock in August 2018 “it has been a long time since the alleged breach”.

It added: “These violations are rampant and are in line with the actions of the former House of Fraser company that now controls and have nothing to do with the new business of the House of Fraser business owned by the Frasers Group.”

Hays said “low pay was unintentional and uncommon”, adding that “this applies to a small number of people who are paid less and less money due to a special management problem”.

Hays said that as soon as the issue came to light in 2018 “the right amount of money was spent, the staff was immediately reimbursed, and he was satisfied that we had resolved the matter promptly”.

Mitie said: “HMRC acknowledges that this was a technical violation, which is why we are disappointed that we have been included in this list.”

More than a third of the company deducted the cost of goods such as uniforms or food from employee wages. About 30 percent of companies have hired employees to perform unpaid work, such as compulsory training, shift shifts or travel.

Many people also failed to provide adequate pay to trainees, while one-tenth did not increase pay in line with government directives. Some businesses pay less than the minimum wage, such as giving a 23-year-old a young employee.

Bryan Sanderson, chairman of the Low Pay Commission, which advises government on the level of compensation, said: “Low pay. . . it only works if everyone obeys the law without giving up. ”