UK employers must ensure payroll and human resources departments work closely to complete an overview of business and working practices to ensure national minimum wage breaches are avoided, an expert has said.
Gillian Harrington, employment law expert at Pinsent Masons, was commenting after the UK government and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) “named and shamed” 518 employers for failing to pay their workers the national minimum wage.
The employers responsible for the underpayments faced financial penalties of up to 200% of their underpayments.
Harrington said: “Whilst most employers comply with their obligation to pay their employees the national minimum wage, the latest round of ‘naming and shaming’ shows that employers may not even be aware they are breaching requirements. Publicity, penalties and unintentional pitfalls mean employers should regularly audit for national minimum wage compliance.”
A total of 34% of the employers recently named by HMRC had wrongly made deductions from workers’ wages which took their payments below the national minimum wage. Common deductions which employers often make which could see workers’ wages falling below national minimum wage include deductions in respect of meals, parking permits and travel costs, work equipment, stock or till shortages, training costs, Christmas savings schemes, uniform or dress codes, childcare costs, and salary sacrifice schemes.
Harrington said: “Whether a deduction is a regular or a one-off feature of payslips,...
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