Great Britain: Tesco and Pizza Hut among those ‘named and shamed’ for non-payment of minimum wage

On 31 December and after a two-year hiatus, the UK government resumed ‘naming and shaming’ companies for failing to pay the minimum wage (c.f. article No.10488), and revealed the names of 139 companies that have under-paid more than 95,000 people over the period 2016-2018. Among those failing to pay the minimum wage were the Tesco supermarket chain, which failed to pay more than £5 million (€5.63 million) to more than 78,000 employees, and the fast food chain Pizza Hut, which failed to pay more than £845,000 (€952,000) to nearly 11,000 people. Business Minister Paul Scully stated, “Paying the minimum wage is not optional, it is the law. It is never acceptable for any employer to short-change their workers, but it is especially disappointing to see huge household names who absolutely should know better on this list”. Tesco didn’t appreciate the allusion, arguing that in 2017 it had identified “a technical issue that meant some colleagues’ pay inadvertently fell below the national minimum wage”, and claiming that it had voluntarily notified the tax authorities of the incident, which has also subsequently been resolved. Tesco stated it was “extremely disappointed and surprised to have been included in this list”. Pizza Hut made reference to a former ‘error’ that was linked to uniforms, but it rejected any intention of underpayment. The government has disregarded these explanations and has forced each under-payer to reimburse the employees as well as to pay a penalty.