Food firms ‘named and shamed’ for low pay

The list – totalling 198 firms – was produced by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial strategy (DBEI).

Among them was fresh salad and ready meal producer Flavourfresh Salads or Southport, Merseyside.

The manufacturer was listed because it owed £2,154.94 to three workers.

A total of nine other food service companies were found to have underpaid its workers according to the DBEI.

Underpaid its workers

These included: Mr Moo’s Family Butchers, Catering Academy, Ro-Ro restaurants, The Modern Chinese Takeaway, Cheasty, Terracotta Foods, Purple Pig Middlesburough, IPizza UK and Peppermint UK Foods.

Business minister Margot James said: “This government is determined to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.

“It is not acceptable that some employers fail to pay at least the minimum wage their workers are entitled to.

“So we’ll continue to crack down on those who ignore the law, including by naming and shaming them.”

The DBEI said all the money owed had been paid back to workers.

The scheme to name and shame firms that underpaid its workers was introduced in october 2013. Up 688 employers have been reported, with total arrears of more than £3.5M.

Arrears of more than £3.5M

Top of the list of illegally low payers was a London restaurant which owed nearly £100,000 to 30 of its staff.

Also included in the list were beauty and hair salons, restaurant firms and care homes.

The National Living Wage was introduced in April this year for workers aged 25, which rose their minimum amount a business has to pay workers to £7.20 an hour.

For workers under the age of 25, the National Minimum Wage still applies.

Meanwhile, A Shropshire-­based fresh produce recruitment agency has been stripped of its licence for systematically ‘skimming’ workers’ pay, resulting in employees receiving less than the national minimum wage.