Minimum Wage Inspections Halved Under Coalition
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The number of workplaces being inspected to see if they are paying staff the minimum wage has more than halved under the coalition Government, prompting warnings that exploited workers are not being protected.
There were just 1,455 employer inspections last year, a 60% fall from the 3,643 carried out in the final year of the last Labour government, Treasury figures showed.
Staff were paid less than the minimum wage in nearly half (47%) of the workplaces inspected in 2013/14, up from 34% of all employers investigated in 2009/10.
The proportion of inspected workplaces found to be paying staff less than the minimum wage has steadily risen since the coalition came to power in 2010, while the number of inspections has fallen.
There have only been two prosecutions in the six-year period, but HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) usually enforces full payment of wages through the civil courts if the employer does not pay arrears.
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, who uncovered the figures using a written parliamentary question, criticised the Government for not doing enough to protect workers from "rogue employers".
She said: "These alarming figures show that the Government is not doing enough to protect people from being exploited and undercut.
http://money.uk.msn.com/news/minimum-wage-inspections-attacked
That's a disgrace of this government. Good job of Emily Thornberry to expose it.
There were just 1,455 employer inspections last year, a 60% fall from the 3,643 carried out in the final year of the last Labour government, Treasury figures showed.
Staff were paid less than the minimum wage in nearly half (47%) of the workplaces inspected in 2013/14, up from 34% of all employers investigated in 2009/10.
The proportion of inspected workplaces found to be paying staff less than the minimum wage has steadily risen since the coalition came to power in 2010, while the number of inspections has fallen.
There have only been two prosecutions in the six-year period, but HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) usually enforces full payment of wages through the civil courts if the employer does not pay arrears.
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry, who uncovered the figures using a written parliamentary question, criticised the Government for not doing enough to protect workers from "rogue employers".
She said: "These alarming figures show that the Government is not doing enough to protect people from being exploited and undercut.
http://money.uk.msn.com/news/minimum-wage-inspections-attacked
That's a disgrace of this government. Good job of Emily Thornberry to expose it.
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Comments
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/32571/8023.pdf
I don't know 'cos I can't download that, but it's obvious enough things have got much worse in terms of people being ripped off by bad employers and not being paid arrears. It won't have had a positive effect on in-work poverty or immigration numbers, that's for sure. Neither will it have done much good for the fall in real wages under the coalition. It's another loud and clear message that Tories chat rubbish when they say they stand for working people.
That would be good to see.
That would be good to see.[/QUOTE]
BIB - The whole point of giving you the link was so you could read it yourself and see things have not got much worse.
Don't see why you can't download it as it is only a PDF document, but if you can't then you can't.
Anyway if you want to source a copy from elsewhere it is called
National Minimum Wage
Low Pay Commission Report 2011
Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State
for Business, Innovation & Skills
by Command of Her Majesty
April 2011
(and it just opened again for me)
Cm 8023 £37.00
Do they do random spot checks on companies or do they wait for a complaint and then do an inspection.
No because there's loads of places that have only immigrant workers. These will be the high risk work places they should be keeping on top of. What this tells us is that there's more immigrants being ripped off than ever before and the government of the day are taking a totally lax approach towards it. It puts those ukip posters into perspective don't you think.
Yes they have got much worse. This tells us they have got much worse, as now there are not nearly as many exploitative work places being issued with a receipt of formal notice of underpayment.
"The majority of employers identified as paying below the NMW will pay arrears on receipt of a formal notice of underpayment. Where they don't, HMRC will pursue recovery through the civil courts.
What's not to understand?
I stopped the pdf from d/l 'cos I have limited data and it was looking slow.
A person from the Car Wash Association talked about the WashMark system, that has been designed to safeguard working standards and the environment.
The Car Wash Association (CWA) was formed in 2007 to promote best practice within the car wash industry.
Initially, Car Wash Association members came from manufacturers of vehicle washing equipment, oil companies and forecourt retailers, but in recent years some high quality hand wash operators have joined the Association and today the CWA takes a balanced view towards the industry.
The CWA sets high standards for quality and safety, and encourages its members to act fairly and responsibly at all times. In doing so the Association believe that these common goals are in the interests of the industry, the customer and the environment. Regardless of how our member’s wash vehicles, we expect them to be compliant with best business practices and this means that they operate their businesses legally and responsibly, with employees who are entitled to work and are paid a fair wage, they pay their taxes, adhere to local planning regulations and they dispose of their waste in an environmentally sensitive manner. This qualities are embodied by the CWA's standard of best practice, the 'WashMark' which is shown on this page.
If you are looking for somewhere that is safe to wash your car, look for the WashMark; it shows that they care about you and the environment.
http://www.carwashassociation.co.uk/who_we_are.php
When asked how can there be so many unregulated car washes operating in the UK, the person from the CWA said that they carry out their own investigations, but unfortunately an awful lot of people are not following this up.
You mean the new system that has made so many mistakes already. Over 3.5 million workers face a surprise tax bill of around £300 over the next year after an inaccuracy in the HMRC's system meant millions of employees paid too little tax.
Those who owe HMRC extra tax will pay it back through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) system next year.
Overall, around 5.5 million paid the wrong amount of tax, meaning around 2 million paid too much and will be sent a rebate.
The major errors occurred over the 2013-2014 tax year and despite the taxman stumping up around £270m (€338m, $460m) for a new programme, Real Time Information (RTI), after a pledge to improve the accuracy of the tax system.
However, the overall amount of employees paying the wrong tax amounts is higher for the 2013-2014 year than the previous year.
HMRC said in a media statement that "the effects of RTI had not been reflected yet and it would eventually lead to a reduction in the number of corrections".
Using the RTI system has come under fire from employers over the last year as they have to report wage payments to HMRC on a weekly or monthly basis.
I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I guess that it's companies that are reported to be flouting the rules that are being let off the hook more under this government.
In his reply to Ms Thornberry, Exchequer Secretary David Gauke said: " The Government take the enforcement of the national minimum wage (NMW) very seriously and HMRC reviews every complaint that is referred to it, investigating the complaint and, in addition, carrying out targeted enforcement where we identify a high risk of non-payment of NMW.
... Really?
:: The number of inspections and the number of workplaces found to be paying staff less than the minimum wage between 2009 and 2014 is outlined below:::
2009/10: 3,643 completed inspections, 1,256 non-compliant workplaces.::
2010/11: 2,904 completed inspections, 1,140 non-compliant workplaces.::
2011/12: 2,534 completed inspections, 968 non-compliant workplaces.::
2012/13: 1,693 completed inspections, 736 non-compliant workplaces.::
2013/14: 1,455 completed inspections, 680 non-compliant workplaces.
You wouldn't know it from what the figures say!
Could it be that HMRC are receiving less complaints.
Also PAYE is now done in what is called RTI ( Real Time Information) so what you process instead of being filed annually is now filed monthly online, there is much less chance of people paying less than the NMW now these systems are in place as they would think it was not worth it. The type who will be paying less than the NMW are those who will not even have the employees on the payroll and do it all cash in hand, and they can be diffcult to catch (like anyone breaking the law ) unless an employee reports them.