The Fair Work Agency named 658 companies for failing to pay the minimum wage and said they must pay £7m in fines and return £4m to more than 27,000 workers. The list includes Tesco, B&Q and Whitbread, putting specific employers on notice under a new enforcement regime.
Jonathan Reynolds said: “Short-changing your staff isn’t a shortcut to success, and we are determined to stamp it out.” Kate Dearden added: “Underpaying your staff is illegal, and we will not let workers foot the bill for their boss failing to follow the rules.”
Fair Work Agency names
The naming round is the clearest sign yet of how the Fair Work Agency is using the powers it gained in April under the Employment Rights Act. Matthew Taylor said: “This naming round is an important reminder that paying the minimum wage is not optional — it is the law.”
The agency can search individuals and work premises and seize evidence if it suspects a firm has fallen foul of employment law. That gives it a sharper tool than a simple repayment demand, because employers now face public naming as well as financial penalties and orders to repay staff.
Tesco, B&Q and Whitbread
The biggest single repayment among the named firms went to B&Q, which was ordered to pay back nearly £457,000 to 4,530 workers. Tesco failed to pay £227.84 to one worker, while Whitbread failed to pay nearly £4,200 to 342 employees. Two McDonald’s franchises in Essex and Warwickshire were made to pay back more than £29,000 to 797 workers in total.
Those figures show the scale of the enforcement round. The fine total of £7m sits alongside £4m ordered back to workers, so the punishment and repayment elements were both substantial rather than symbolic.
Company responses
Several of the named companies said the underpayments were accidental or technical. Tesco said the underpayment was an isolated administrative error and that it was quickly resolved; the company also said sorry. B&Q said the shortfalls were unintentional and that the affected workers were paid in full in July last year.
Serco said a technical error affected one contract more than two years ago and related to salary sacrifice schemes. It said the issue was quickly rectified and all employees were reimbursed in full. The McDonald’s franchisees apologised to all affected employees and said they took steps to resolve the pay issues as soon as they were made aware of them.
That leaves one practical question for workers and employers alike: how the 658 firms were selected for naming this time, and which breaches put each company on the list. The public record now shows the penalties and repayments, but not the full pattern behind every case.
