Amble employer denies wrongdoing

An Amble employer has been '˜named and shamed' for underpaying a former worker, as the Government published the largest ever list of national minimum and living-wage offenders.
Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.
Brought to you by the Northumberland Gazette.

As part of its report, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has said that House of Usher failed to pay £369.17 to a member of staff.

However, Amanda Hume, from the hairdressers on Queen Street, has contested this, saying she has lodged an appeal and denies any wrongdoing.

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Responding to the accusation, she said that the employee in question was on a trial period and she wasn’t obliged to pay him, but she did in fact give him money.

She said that he had been at the hairdressers for two months before leaving.

She says that she has taken advice from the National Hairdressers’ Federation and claims that the organisation has said she did nothing wrong.

She added that she has lodged an appeal to HMRC, but has heard nothing back.

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In its list, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy named 360 businesses who underpaid 15,520 workers a total of £995,233.

As well as recovering arrears for some of the UK’s lowest paid workers, HMRC issued penalties worth around £800,000.

For the first time, the naming list includes employers who failed to pay eligible workers at least the new National Living Wage rate, which is £7.20 for workers aged 25 and over.

Since the naming and shaming scheme was introduced by the BEIS in October 2013, more than 1,000 employers have been named, with arrears totalling more than £4.5million.

More than £2million in fines have been issued to national minimum and living wage offenders.