Mitchells & Butlers and Greggs among firms named for failing to pay minimum wage

Greggs and Mitchells & Butlers are among over 500 companies that have been named by the government for failing to pay some of their staff the minimum wage.

The 524 businesses listed by the Department for Business and Trade breached national minimum wage law and owed almost £16m to 172,000 workers combined.

Pub and restaurant operator Mitchells & Butlers, which is behind brands including Miller & Carter and All Bar One, ranked fifth in the list for failing to pay £565,094.87 to 16,187 workers, while Greggs came 11th for failing to pay £219,129.07 to 4,793 workers.

Meanwhile, Stonegate Pub Company, which owns brands such as Slug & Lettuce and Be at One, ranked 21st for failing to pay £101,044.67 to 3,650 staff.

A spokesperson for Mitchells & Butlers said: “Our minimum hourly pay has never been below the national minimum wage. As the minister notes, not all underpayments are intentional and this was the case here.

"The HMRC review of our pay practices, which concluded in 2019, identified a technical misinterpretation of the regulations. All arrears due were paid to our valued employees and ex-employees at the end of the review and we have updated our policies where necessary.”

A spokesperson for Greggs said: “During a review with HMRC, it was brought to our attention that our uniform policy for retail colleagues was not aligned with HMRC's interpretation of national minimum wage regulations, and as a result, we revised our uniform policy in January 2018.

"Once the review was concluded, we reimbursed colleagues and former colleagues who had been impacted by this unintended error.”

The Caterer understands Stonegate owed roughly £27 to each affected person between 2015 and 2019, which has since been repaid.

All the businesses in the list have since paid back what they owe to their staff, as well as additional financial penalties of up to 200% of their underpayment.

The announcement comes ahead of the 9.8% National Living Wage hike that is set to come into force on 1 April, which will raise hourly pay from £10.42 to £11.44.

Kevin Hollinrake, minister for enterprise, markets and small business, said: “Employees deserve to get paid properly for the hard work they put in.

“While the majority of businesses already do the right thing and pay their staff what they are owed, this announcement sends a message to the minority who aren’t - that there are repercussions to undercutting hard work from their staff.”

The size of this year’s list was more than double that of last year, which featured 202 employers that owed nearly £5m to 63,000 employees.