SPARE a thought for the staff who serve you this weekend when you are out to dinner or are attending the football match because some of the biggest names in the hospitality sector have been prosecuted for not paying their staff even the National Minimum Wage.
A Government report exposes poverty wages and unacceptable employment practices at Wagamama, TGI Friday’s, Marriott Hotels, Birmingham City and Stoke City football clubs and St Helens Rugby club, among others.
In total, 179 employers across Britain (15 in Scotland) were fined £1.3million by HM Customs and Excise. Marriot Hotels had to pay £250 each to 279 of its staff as they had not had the legal minimum rate.
An HMRC spokesman said the penalties meant employers could be fined up to twice the total wages shortfall, subject to a maximum of £20,000 per worker. However, as The Financial Times pointed out, there are so few HMRC inspectors enforcing the Minimum Wage that the average company can expect an audit once every 500 years.
The Scottish Socialist Party will continue to expose these practices as part of our ongoing campaign for a £10-an-hour Living Wage, the rate the Government says you need to earn to pay your way.
Colin Fox, National spokesman,
Scottish Socialist Party,
8 Alloway Loan, Edinburgh.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel