UK government admits wrongly 'naming and shaming' firms in minimum wage cheat list

The UK government has admitted that it wrongly listed two employers as part of its scheme to "name and shame" minimum wage cheats after a probe from IBTimes UK. The Department for Business published a list of 115 companies on 23 October and accused the firms of not paying their employees the full National Minimum Wage (NMW), which rose from £6.50 an hour to £6.70 in October and will rise to £9 by 2020.

But the ministry later quietly removed London based Danhouse Security and Scottish business C & R Tyres from the original list. The Department for Business admitted that it had wrongly made the move after IBTimes UK confronted the ministry about the changes.

"Two businesses who were previously named for failing to pay the NMW to their workers have been named again in error," a spokesperson for ministry said. "We would like to apologise to those businesses and are reviewing our processes to ensure this does not happen again."

However, this is not the first time the Department for Business has had a mix up in its "naming and shaming" scheme. As eagle-eyed employment rights expert Richard Dunstan pointed out, the ministry wrongly named two dissolved businesses (Zoom Ltd and Master Distribution Ltd).

"It's hard to imagine how the Department for Business could make such mistakes. Do they not have checking procedures? We should just be glad the Department for Business is not a major delivery department," Dunstan told IBTimes UK.

Ministers have claimed since the introduction of the "name and shame" scheme in October 2013, more than £1.1m arrears have been flagged up and £513,000 worth of penalties issued. More information about NMW law and compliance can be found on Acas online. Elsewhere, employers can call HMRC for help on the issue at 0800 917 2368 .

Danhouse Security had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication and C & R Tyres declined to comment. The adjusted list from the Department for Business can be viewed below.