Capita, Pizza Express, Lidl and British Airways are among more than 500 companies publicly named and shamed by the UK government for failing to pay thousands of staff the legal minimum wage.
The Department for Business and Trade on Thursday published a list of 518 employers who collectively owed £7.4 million to nearly 60,000 workers. The underpayments were identified through HMRC investigations spanning from 2015 to 2022. In addition to repaying workers, the named firms faced financial penalties of up to 200 per cent of the amounts underpaid.
Justin Madders, the minister for employment rights, said the government would not tolerate employers undercutting staff. “There is no excuse for employers to undercut their workers,” he said. “We will continue to name companies who break the law and don’t pay their employees what they are owed.”
At the top of the list was outsourcing giant Capita, which failed to correctly pay 5,543 workers, owing a total of £1.15 million. The company said the shortfall was due to “inadvertent underpayments” stemming from issues including unpaid pre-shift login time for call centre staff between 2015 and 2021. Capita said all owed wages had been repaid immediately and system changes had been implemented to prevent a recurrence.
Restaurant chain Pizza Express was second on the list, having underpaid 8,470 employees a total of £760,701 between 2012 and 2018. A spokesperson said the issue arose from a “historic unintentional technicality”, and confirmed the company had “swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified” the matter.
British Airways said the £231,276 it failed to pay 2,165 workers related to new cabin crew who were underpaid during their first two months between 2014 and 2017. The airline said all affected employees were back-paid “several years ago” and it had apologised at the time.
Discount supermarket Lidl owed £286,437 to 3,423 employees, while Halfords, the motor and cycling retailer, underpaid 4,341 workers a total of £140,829.
Other prominent employers on the list included travel group Tui, holiday parks operator Parkdean Resorts, and CDS Superstores, the company behind The Range.
The minimum wage — known as the National Living Wage for workers over the age of 21 — was raised to £12.21 an hour in April. It was first introduced in 1999 and is updated annually. The government regularly publishes the names of non-compliant employers as part of its enforcement campaign to ensure the lowest-paid workers are treated fairly.
