Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
1
My favourite local Michelin gaff discovered to have underpaid 22 employees.
The hotel/restaurant says it relates to reclaiming cash advances from subsequent wages and they thought this was within the law. Personally, I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. Just about. They have an enviable committment to training, including formal apprenticships for kitchen and restaurant & hotel front of house staff, so I would have expected them to have their HR shit sorted.
It does seem like they had a few minor issues rather than systematic abuse. I suspect HMRC wanted a few juicy headlines to set an example to the lower profile employers.
My understanding is they were in the wrong because they advanced money to apprentices to buy discounted knives, for accomodation deposits and for one to have their car fixed and then the loan deductions meant the take home was below minimum rates.
They also were late moving a few workers to higher wages when they had birthdays - as minimum wage is determined by age - under 18, 18 to 25 and over 25.
That said loans against future earnings etc are a tricky area as they are often the way “slave labour” employers hook in staff i.e. loan a large amount upfront for travel, or deduct a lot for accomodation meaning the take home is negligible and the worker is trapped.
Northcote were not doing this but I can understand why the law is fairly prescriptive in this area and thus catches the well intended as much as the rogues.
The solution to not falling foul of changes in age related minimum wage rates when people have birthdays is to pay sufficiently above the minimum to start with. Then a birthday doesn’t usually matter.
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
3
I mentioned the committment to training. And then got this good news story this morning. I think it’s a really great idea and I think we’ll try and go to one of the evenets.
