Firms Fined for Paying Under Minimum Wage

[steveL]

Here's one for a few people to be thinking about - once they've come out of their 'I haven't done anything wrong' phase which seems to be fast becoming the soundbite of the year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22721889

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Hmm ... reading about the 'unpaid extra hours' sounds a bit like a certain local call centre, where (on a daily basis) staff for one particular contract were expected to stay on after closing time to deal with queuing calls. Not an unreasonable concept per se, but since paid overtime was only granted when pre-arranged (which was not factored in to cover 'after hours' requirements), the poor souls sometimes ended up working unpaid for what could build up to between a half and a full day a month! Since the majority of the young people who worked there were getting only a penny or two an hour more than the minimum wage, doubtless this unpaid overtime knocked them below the baseline.

[brassed off monkey]

Makes you realise what a bunch of Total Hypocrites "The Mob" are, i wonder who will end up picking up the bill for the Tribunal payments awarded to Mrs Gooding & Mr Cunningham, & there could well be an added cost of having to pay any fines that may be levied against the (Theres Nothing Wrong With Manor Residents Organisation)

[tankerville]

There is nothing new about firms paying workers less than the recommended wage BELLS STORES where notorious  for employing school kids at 50p an hour now they have stores all over the North East under a different name of course.

[steveL]

Minimum wage regulations don't apply to school kids

"Children can only start full-time work after the last Friday in June of the academic year when they turn 16. This is the minimum school leaving age.

After a child has reached the minimum school leaving age they can work up to a maximum of 40 hours a week.

School-aged children are not entitled to the National Minimum Wage. Young workers aged 16 to 17 are entitled to at least £3.68/hr.

Once someone reaches 18, adult employment rights and rules then apply."

[tankerville]

I was aware of that Steve but 50p an hour is not acceptable at all. Radio Tees blew the lid off Bells Stores taking advantage of that very fact you have mentioned, and they rightly received a lot of unwelcome press
which made them end employing children at their stores.

So some good came from it.

[steveL]

Isn't Bells that strange store in Billingham? When I was a kid, there was a Bells hardware shop in Southgate. Mind you, that was when the Headland could boast several banks and a proper shopping street all the way along Northgate.