Firms named and shamed for not paying the national minimum wage

Sports Direct was among five firms in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire named and shamed for failing to pay the minimum wage.

The firms joined a total of 260 around the UK which underpaid 16,000 workers £1.7m in back pay and have been fined £1.3m.

The Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy identified Sports Direct, with its warehouse in Shirebrook, as the biggest offender in our area failing to pay £167,036.24 to 383 workers.

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Alexsa, a beauty salon in Mansfield, failed to pay £1,566.28 to two employees; and Clippers, a hair salon in Ashfield, failed to pay £1,017.68 to two workers.

Two other offenders were KH Hair, in Ashfield, which also has a store in Nottingham. It failed to pay £465.29 to two workers, while Attenborough Service Station paid one worker £278.39 less than was required.

The Recruitment & Employment Bureau Ltd, Mansfield failed to pay £223.20 to 1 worker.

A spokesman for Sports Direct said: “This matter relates to the historical situation in our warehouse that was widely publicised in 2016, for which we apologised at the time.

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“We cooperated fully with HMRC to make back payments to Sports Direct staff who were affected.

“We are committed to treating all our people with dignity and respect, and we pay above the National Minimum Wage.”

A spokesman for Alexsa said: “We are proud of the fact that we have a great team at Alexsa, and it has been delivering excellent customer service for many years.

“Due to a genuine clerical error over start and finish times, we underpaid two employees over a period of about three months.

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“As soon as we were notified of this, we were mortified, and we worked with the BEIS to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

“We are delighted to say that both staff members are still with us and are valued employees.”

Sharon Daniels is the owner of Clippers, in Ashfield, and said the ‘honest mistake’ came when they employed an apprentice. She had been due to start her studies at a college to become an apprentice, but when that fell through, they didn’t realise that they had to pay her as a full-time employee.

Ms Daniels said: “It was an honest mistake and that’s been put right now. It was a genuine mistake, but they have blown it out of all proportion. They just do it to make you feel guilty, but I’ve got nothing to feel guilty about – I was doing someone a favour so she could do an apprenticeship. I was trying to help.”