BA and Pizza Express among companies that failed to pay minimum wage

Pizza Express, British Airways and the outsourcing firmgroup Capita are among leading businesses named by the government for failing to pay some of their staff the minimum wage.

After investigations by HM Revenue and Customs, more than 60,000 low-paid workers have received back pay worth £7.4m after 518 employers failed to meet the legal minimum wage level.

The German-owned supermarket chain Lidl and Halfords were also on a “name and shame” list of culprits issued by the Department for Business and Trade.

The investigations were conducted between 2015 and 2022 but have only recently been completed and all back-payments agreed, allowing for publication of the full list, a spokesperson for the department said.

Capita, one of the government’s biggest contractors, was the worst offender: it failed to pay £1.5m to 5,543 workers.

A spokesperson for Capita said “inadvertent underpayments” were to blame between 2015 and 2021, due to issues including adding 25 minutes a week for call centre staff to log in for their shifts.

“All owed monies were paid immediately, and we are sorry for any impact this had on colleagues and former colleagues at that time,” the company added.

“Our processes and systems were updated to ensure there would be no further issues; we have continued to monitor them carefully, as well as any changes to employment regulations.”

Pizza Express failed to pay £760,702 to 8,470 workers, amounting to about £90 on average.

A spokesperson for Pizza Express said: “Once we were made aware of this historic unintentional technicality, which occurred between 2012 and 2018, we swiftly identified who was impacted, apologised and rectified.

“There’s nothing more important to us than fairly and accurately paying our team members.”

British Airways was named for failing to pay £231,276 to 2,165 workers. The company said an audit in 2017 revealed that “we had accidentally, slightly underpaid some of our cabin crew who joined us between 2014 and 2017 during their first two months of employment.

“We apologised and issued backdated payments several years ago.”

A spokesperson for Halfords said: “The rates that we pay our colleagues are competitive and are at or above the minimum wage. However, in 2021 we found some historical work-related costs that should have been met by us as the employer rather than our colleagues. We moved quickly to identify those impacted in order to make the necessary payments.

“All of the costs involved are now met by the company,” they added.

Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said ministers needed to vigorously investigate breaches of minimum wage rules.

“Wage theft is bad for workers, families, and the economy,” he said. “Every pound stolen from a worker’s pocket is a pound not spent in local shops, cafes and high streets.”

The “national living wage” for workers aged 21 and over rose in April from £11.44 an hour to £12.21 an hour.