British Gas’s parent company Centrica, Euro Garages and Holland & Barrett are among the latest companies named and shamed by the government for underpaying staff.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has released a list of nearly 500 employers fined more than £10m for failing to pay the national minimum wage. It said 42,000 workers were repaid more than £6m.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said: “I know that no employer wants to end up on one of these lists. But our Plan to Make Work Pay cracks down on those not playing by the rules.”
All three firms blamed past payroll problems for the underpayments and said all affected staff had been remunerated.
All the employers named on DBT’s list were fined up to double the total amount they owed to staff, some for underpayments dating as far back as 2013.
Paul Nowak, the TUC general secretary, said there was “no excuse for workers being cheated out of money they’re owed. It’s bad for workers, families and the economy.”
According to the government’s latest investigations between 2018 and 2023, Euro Garages, known as EG Group, is top of the list short-changing 3,317 of its workers by a hefty sum of more than £824,000.
The company, which was co-founded by billionaire brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa but who have since stepped back from leading the firm, has significantly reduced its UK operations over the past year.
It sold its UK petrol forecourts business and Cooplands bakeries, but still runs some Starbucks franchise stores across the UK.
In a statement, an EG Group spokesperson said: “These historic payroll issues that took place between 2015 and 2019 have been fully rectified.
“All affected employees were subsequently reimbursed in full in agreement with HMRC.”
The firm said it improved its systems to make sure it complied with UK laws and maintained that it was committed to treating employees fairly.
Centrica, which owns British Gas, was eighth on DBT’s list having failed to pay £167,815 to 356 workers.
The energy giant recently bought one of the biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in the UK for £1.7bn, extending the firm’s control of the country’s energy supplies.
A Centrica spokesperson said the company supported fair pay and pointed to technical faults in its payroll system between 2015 and 2019.
“This issue relates to a small number of historic technical errors which was put right as soon as it was identified.
“The total underpayment related primarily to salary sacrifice arrangements and training bonds, rather than take home pay, and was around £160,000 – our UK annual wage bill is currently around £1.2bn.”
High street retailer Holland & Barrett is next on the list after it failed to pay more than £153,000 to 2,551 workers.
In a statement, the company said past issues with minimum wage payments, between 2015 and 2021, had since been fixed in 2022.
“This was not a case of deliberate underpayment,” said a spokesperson.
“The issue stemmed from legacy practices such as requiring team members to wear specific shoes, unpaid training completed at home, and time spent preparing for shifts at our Burton distribution site.”
Holland & Barrett said it remained “committed to fair pay” and that it was paying store staff about 5% above the National Living Wage and follows all rules.
“While we respect the transparency of the scheme, we are disappointed that naming has occurred over three years after the matter was settled.”
The minimum wage for over 21s, known officially as the National Living Wage, is currently £12.21 an hour. Younger employees – aged between 16 and 20 – are entitled to receive the National Minimum Wage, which is set at £10 and hour.
