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Minimum wage crackdown announced

12/09/2007

The government has pledged to clamp down on "rogue" employers who fail to pay their workers the national minimum wage.

UK employers are legally required to pay the minimum wage to almost all workers above compulsory school leaving age.

However critics claim that some employers are failing to pay their staff the minimum to which they are entitled.

In a speech to the TUC's annual conference today, business and enterprise secretary John Hutton pledged tougher action against those employers who were evading the national minimum wage rules.

He told delegates at the Brighton conference that the maximum fine for businesses who failed to pay the minimum wage would be increased.

In addition, staff who have had the minimum wage withheld from them will be granted new rights. Employees will be able to claim wage arrears according to the level at which the minimum wage stands at the time they make a complaint against an employer.

The minimum wage, set according to recommendations from the independent Low Pay Commission, is set at different rates for different workers.

Workers aged 22 and over currently receive £5.35 an hour, with the main minimum wage rate set to rise further in October.

Mr Hutton said that the enforcement agencies would also need to work more closely together to tackle minimum wage abuse and unveiled additional plans to clamp down on rogue employment agencies.

The minister announced a doubling in the number of inspectors employed by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, which he said would be given more powers, while stressing that unscrupulous agencies would no longer be able to force workers to pay for things such as transport to their work.

Commenting on the plans Mr Hutton said: "Existing workplace rights alone are not going to be enough if employers think that they can flaunt the law without impunity."

He added that the government would "never retreat" from demanding fairness at work.

"Rights existing only on paper are not worth the paper they are written on," he stressed.