Teesside taxi firm among 200 companies who failed to pay workers the minimum wage

A Teesside business has been named among the over 200 firms who have been “named and shamed” by the Government for breaking the minimum wage law.

According to a new report, 23 Taxis in Hartlepool, failed to pay £7,190 with 83 workers affected. The business is the only company on Teesside on the list.

Many of the firms named are small companies including hotels, hairdressers, restaurants and pre-school nurseries. You can see if it’s in your area by putting your postcode into our interactive map below.

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David Hudson of 23 Taxis said: This was six years ago in 2017. They found there was a discrepancy in the pay roll when we changed from monthly pay to weekly pay due to there being 52 weeks in the year, but we calculated wrongly for 12 months only accounting for 48 weeks.

“They acknowledged that this was a clerical error but nevertheless was wrong. Out of 225 employees at that time six years ago, 83 of them was found to be underpaid by an average of £86.62 for the financial year that equated to an average of £7.21 per month. They were all paid back in full.”

The area with the most firms listed is Westminster, with eight companies, followed by Armagh and Leeds, both with five firms. Four companies are listed in Manchester, Glasgow and Wokingham. The employers have been made to pay back what they owed, and in addition were fined around £7m.

There are 26 hotels on the list, 15 hairdressing or beauty salons, 13 restaurants, and ten providers of pre-primary school education. The list includes Blackpool Pleasure Beach Limited, which underpaid 12 staff, and Warrington Wolves rugby league club, which had to pay 34 staff a total of over £7,500.

High street retailer WH Smith was the worst offender, according to HMRC, with the new figures claiming it failed to pay around £1 million to 17,607 workers. The retailer blamed this on an error related to its company uniform policy.

A spokesman for WH Smith said: “Following a review with HMRC in 2019, and in common with a number of retailers, it was brought to our attention that we had misinterpreted how the statutory wage regulations were applied to our uniform policy for staff working in our stores.

“This was a genuine error and it was rectified immediately with all colleagues reimbursed in 2019.”

Kevin Hollinrake, minister for enterprise, markets and small business, said: “Paying the legal minimum wage is non-negotiable and all businesses, whatever their size, should know better than to short-change hard-working staff.

“Most businesses do the right thing and look after their employees, but we’re sending a clear message to the minority who ignore the law: pay your staff properly or you’ll face the consequences.”

Marks & Spencer failed to pay £578,390 to 5,363 workers, the report said. In response, an M&S spokesman said: “Like many other organisations, M&S is only named in the list because of an unintentional technical issue from over four years ago.”

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