Greencore, Heron Foods and Subway have been ‘named and shamed’ in the government’s list of businesses failing to pay their employees the national minimum wage.
Greencore underpaid 22 employees at its Hull branch by a total of £1,675.50 - averaging out at £76.16 each - revealed the list published by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy today.
Heron Foods underpaid 15 employees by a larger amount of £5,899.50, working out at an average of £393.30 per person.
And seven Subway franchises across the UK made the list, which between them underpaid 184 employees a total of £8,669.64.
Greencore said its underpayment was down to an administrative error that had now been rectified, and said it had put in place measures “to prevent an oversight of this kind from happening again”.
Heron Foods also cited an administrative error as the cause and said it taken “prompt action” to rectify the error by working with the HMRC and updating its time recording systems.
Subway said it took the matter “very seriously” as part of its agreement with franchisees and had ensured the seven businesses had reimbursed their affected employees appropriately.
Food and drink businesses made up 71 of the 360 companies in the list, published regularly to enforce the laws on paying the national minimum wage.
The majority were small restaurants, cafés and food shops that had only underpaid one employee. But between them, the businesses owed 445 employees over £153,000.
Overall, Debenhams was the employer that owed the most to its employees, at a combined figure of nearly £135,000.
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