The Government has announced that employers who fail to pay the national minimum wage (NMW) will be publicly named and shamed under revamped plans to make it easier to clamp down on rogue businesses. The new rules are part of Government efforts to toughen up enforcement of the NMW and increase compliance. By naming employers, it is hoped that bad publicity will be an additional deterrent to employers who would otherwise be tempted not to pay the NMW. This is on top of financial penalties of up to £5,000 which employers already face if they fail to pay NMW. The revised NMW naming scheme, which will come into effect in October 2013, will strip back restrictions, making it simpler for the Government to name more employers who break the law. Under the original scheme which came into effect in January 2011, employers had to meet one of seven criteria before they could be named. In addition, the minimum amount of national minimum wage owed to workers had to be at least £2,000 and the average arrears per worker at least £500 before an employer could be referred for naming. The revised scheme will remove these restrictions so that any employer who breaks minimum wage law can be named. The revised scheme will name employers that have been issued with a Notice of Underpayment (NoU) by HMRC. This notice sets out the owed wages to be paid by the employer together with the penalty for not complying with minimum wage law. Currently, employers have 28 days to appeal against the NoU and this will continue. If the employer does not appeal or unsuccessfully appeals against this NoU, the Government will consider them for naming. The employer then has 14 days to make representations to the Government and it will normally expect to inform the employer of the outcome of any representations made within 14 days of receipt. If the Government does not receive any representations, or the representations received are unsuccessful, the employer will be named via a Government press release.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 23:10:44 +0000
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