A large employer has been fined £5,000 by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and ordered to repay over £30,000 in wages to 40 workers who were underpaid, in a stark reminder to employers to beware of making deductions from wages for a benefit that takes pay below the national minimum wage.
A company in a highly competitive creative industry that took on a worker seeking to get her foot in the door and paid her "expenses only" was found in this case to have breached national minimum wage and working time legislation.
In this case, the industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland described a small employer's decision to dismiss a young worker to avoid having to increase her pay from £4.00 to the national minimum wage rate of £4.92, when she reached the age of 18, as "callous".