Month: December 2020

Almost 140 companies, including some of the UK’s biggest household names, are being named and shamed today for failing to pay their workers the minimum wage.

Investigated between 2016 and 2018, the 139 named companies failed to pay £6.7m to over 95,000 workers in total, in a flagrant breach of employment law. The offending companies range in size from small businesses to large multinationals who employ thousands of people across the UK.

Preserving and enforcing workers’ rights is a priority for this Government. While the vast majority of businesses follow the law and uphold workers’ rights, the publication of the list is intended to serve as a warning to rogue employers that the Government will take action against those who fail to pay their employees properly.

This is the first time the Government has named and shamed companies for failing to pay National Minimum Wage since 2018, following reforms to

Small businesses have asked the chancellor for millions of pounds in additional support to get them through the latest coronavirus restrictions.

A second round of grants, a new German-style reimbursement scheme for lost trading, improved terms for state-guaranteed bounceback loans and income support for the newly self-employed are needed, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has said.

With less access to credit, small firms, who employ 60 per cent of private sector workers, have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic.

The government has provided support totalling £34.4 billion, including £21.1 billion in grants and business rates relief, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. Almost 1.5 million small firms have also taken one-year interest free bounceback loans of up to £50,000, totalling £43.5 billion.

However, Mike Cherry, chairman of the FSB, has written to Rishi Sunak to say that “fresh restrictions have brought renewed disruption and financial pressure