Walsall Council has been ordered to pay a penalty of £34,082 after failing to pay the minimum wage to 36 members of staff, a freedom of information request has revealed.
The authority was exposed by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) in April for illegally underpaying workers a total of £21,890.67. Along with ordering the missed wages to be repaid in full, the department imposed the fine on the council.
The council confirmed that apprentices and lunchtime supervisors at four schools across the borough were affected by the underpayment. It stressed that the practices were limited to these four schools and did not reflect a general council policy.
A spokesperson for Walsall Council said: “Walsall Council takes its responsibilities as an employer very seriously and fully co-operated with HMRC throughout this process. All underpayments were corrected at the earliest opportunity. The findings relate to a small number of school-based cases, where the impact of some of the practices resulted in wage calculations being fractionally below the National Minimum Wage. The council accepts the penalty in full. At the most recent HMRC review of the council’s employer records, they found that the council was compliant with the relevant legislation.”
Walsall Council, which employs around 3,000 people, was ranked 33rd in a list of 389 employers named and shamed by the DBT. It was the only local authority to appear on the list.
Other nearby offenders included Busy Bees Nurseries Ltd in Burntwood, which failed to pay £485,374.05 to 9,056 workers, ranking fourth on the list. Jooced Custom Sound & Vision Ltd in Wolverhampton failed to pay £13,986.67 to five workers, ranking 51st. Manor Court Healthcare Ltd failed to pay £5,527.70 to 32 workers, ranking 102nd. Wm. Wheat & Son Limited in Walsall underpaid 31 workers by £2,539.22, ranking 169th.
The government has ordered all affected employers to pay a total of £12.6 million in penalties on top of the missed wages.
