PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE: NAMING AND SHAMING OF NON-COMPLIANT EMPLOYERS (19 March 2018)

That this House welcomes the Government's commitment to come down hard on businesses that breach the National Minimum Wage; notes that a key plank of the Government's efforts to both raise awareness and discourage such breaches is the naming and shaming of non-compliant businesses by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy; believes that any such naming scheme needs to be both fair and fully transparent; further notes that of the 1,049 businesses named in the August 2016, February 2017, August 2017 and December 2017 naming rounds for collectively owing £5.2 million to 47,336 workers, 169 were instructed by HM Revenue and Customs to self-correct additional arrears, for which they were not named, totalling £4.1 million and owed to 71,766 workers; notes that 17 of those 169 businesses owed total arrears to more than 250 workers, that 12 owed total arrears to more than 500 workers, that 10 owed total arrears of more than £100,000, that five owed total arrears of more than £250,000, and that 96 were instructed to self­ correct a sum of arrears greater than that for which they were named and shamed; is concerned that current policy on the self-correction of arrears allows the worst offenders to avoid being named for the full sum of arrears owed to their workers, thereby undermining the credibility of the naming scheme; and calls on the Government to conduct a consultative review of policy on both the naming and shaming of businesses and the self-correction of arrears.

Sponsored by:
Caroline Lucas (Green Party)