{"id":77853,"date":"2017-01-11T00:15:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T00:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=e280d26886910c1400010c18ba40a31d"},"modified":"2017-01-11T00:15:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T00:15:02","slug":"press-release-revealed-most-bizarre-excuses-for-underpaying-staff-the-national-minimum-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=77853","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Revealed: most bizarre excuses for underpaying staff the National Minimum Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<ul>\n<li>list of strangest excuses for underpaying National Minimum Wage published<\/li>\n<li>government launches \u00a31.7 million awareness campaign to ensure workers know how much they are legally entitled to<\/li>\n<li>Business Minister Margot James: \u201cThere is no excuse for not paying staff properly.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ten of the most bizarre excuses used by unscrupulous bosses found to have underpaid workers the National Minimum Wage have today (11 January 2016) been revealed by the government.<\/p>\n<p>Excuses for not paying staff the minimum wage include only wanting to pay staff when there are customers to serve and believing it was acceptable to underpay workers until they had \u2018proved\u2019 themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The list has been published today to coincide with a new awareness campaign to encourage workers to check their pay to ensure they are receiving at least the statutory minimum ahead of the national minimum and national living wages rising on 1 April 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The \u00a31.7 million campaign aims to make sure workers are being paid at least the National Minimum Wage, or National Living Wage, depending on their age, and is part of the government\u2019s commitment to making sure the economy works for all.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators from <abbr title=\"Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> have revealed some of the worst excuses given to them by employers caught out for underpaying staff, which include:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The employee wasn\u2019t a good worker so I didn\u2019t think they deserved to be paid the National Minimum Wage.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s part of UK culture not to pay young workers for the first 3 months as they have to prove their \u2018worth\u2019 first.<\/li>\n<li>I thought it was ok to pay foreign workers below the National Minimum Wage as they aren\u2019t British and therefore don\u2019t have the right to be paid it.<\/li>\n<li>She doesn\u2019t deserve the National Minimum Wage because she only makes the teas and sweeps the floors.<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve got an agreement with my workers that I won\u2019t pay them the National Minimum Wage; they understand and they even signed a contract to this effect.<\/li>\n<li>My accountant and I speak a different language \u2013 he doesn\u2019t understand me and that\u2019s why he doesn\u2019t pay my workers the correct wages.<\/li>\n<li>My workers like to think of themselves as being self-employed and the National Minimum Wage doesn\u2019t apply to people who work for themselves.<\/li>\n<li>My workers are often just on standby when there are no customers in the shop; I only pay them for when they\u2019re actually serving someone.<\/li>\n<li>My employee is still learning so they aren\u2019t entitled to the National Minimum Wage.<\/li>\n<li>The National Minimum Wage doesn\u2019t apply to my business.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>By law, all workers must be paid at least \u00a37.20 an hour if they are aged 25 years and over, or the National Minimum Wage rate relevant to their age if they are younger.<\/p>\n<p>Business Minister Margot James said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There are no excuses for underpaying staff what they are legally entitled to. This campaign will raise awareness among the lowest paid in society about what they must legally receive and I would encourage anyone who thinks they may be paid less to contact <abbr title=\"Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service\">Acas<\/abbr> as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Every call is followed up by <abbr title=\"Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr> and we are determined to make sure everybody in work receives a fair wage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Workers are encouraged to regularly check their pay to ensure they are receiving at least the minimum or living wage, depending on their age.<\/p>\n<p>For more information and to report underpayment, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/national-minimum-wage\">www.gov.uk\/national-minimum-wage<\/a> or contact <a rel=\"external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.acas.org.uk\"><abbr title=\"Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service\">Acas<\/abbr><\/a> for free and impartial advice.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"notes-to-editors\">Notes to editors:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>From 1 April 2017:\n<ul>\n<li>The National Living Wage rate for those aged 25 years and over will increase by 30p to \u00a37.50 per hour<\/li>\n<li>For the National Minimum Wage\n<ul>\n<li>the rate for 21 to 24 year olds will increase by 10p to \u00a37.05 per hour<\/li>\n<li>the rate for 18 to 20 year olds will increase by 5 to \u00a35.60 per hour<\/li>\n<li>the rate for 16 to 17 year olds will increase by 5p to \u00a34.05 per hour<\/li>\n<li>the apprentice rate will increase by10p to \u00a33.50 per hour<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The new rates were been recommended by the independent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/organisations\/low-pay-commission\">Low Pay Commission<\/a> after careful consideration of evidence from both workers and employers.<\/li>\n<li>\n<abbr title=\"Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs\">HMRC<\/abbr>\u2019s enforcement budget was increased from \u00a313 million to \u00a320 million in April 2016, increasing the number of compliance officers available to investigate NMW complaints. An additional \u00a34.3 million in enforcement funding was announced in the last Autumn Statement.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ten of the most bizarre excuses used by unscrupulous bosses found to have underpaid workers the National Minimum Wage have been revealed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}