Heswall hairdresser named and shamed for cropping wages short

A WIRRAL hairdressers has been named and shamed after topping a nationwide government hit list of minimum wage dodgers. 

Christine Cadden and Nicola Banks of Renaissance hairdressers in Heswall, failed to cough up £7310.65 to three of their staff, according a the rogues' gallery of 25 offenders published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. 

The firms were all caught out by an HMRC helpline started last October in which employees are encouraged to grass up greedy bosses paying below the minimum hourly rate, currently £6.31. 

In total more than £4.6 million has been paid in arrears to those affected. However outside of the list of 25 firms published in an unusual step, one or two much bigger employers have escaped the floodlights of publicity. They include an unnamed Premier League football club awarded a penalty of £27,500 which it was ordered to pay to over 3,000 workers after it made deductions for uniforms and travelling time for staff working in hospitality. 

Now the TUC has called for greater resources to be given to HMRC inspectors to clamp down on employers who avoid paying staff the statutory minimum hourly rate of pay. 

In total more than £4.6 million has been paid in arrears to those affected but plans - as outlined in the Queen's Speech - are under way so that employers will face a £20,000 fine per employee who is underpaid. 

Lynn Collins, North West TUC cecretary, said “It is shocking that so many employers – including some who pay their star players millions of pounds a year – are cheating low-paid workers out of the minimum wage.

“The penalties won by HMRC – which the Government has rightly decided should be even bigger – should be a clear deterrent to any bad boss thinking about short changing their staff. We also need to see more of these immoral companies named and shamed.

“HMRC staff deserve credit for winning back millions of pounds for cheated employees but they need greater resources to catch the many minimum wage crooks still out there.”