Foyle SDLP MP Mark Durkan has called for increased fines and prosecutions for firms who pay below the £6.31 threshold.
Accusing the HMRC of failing to properly police the national minimum wage, Mr Durkan call comes after news that thousands of employers are getting away with paying their staff under the minimum wage, with only two organisations being prosecuted in the past four years.
The Foyle MP, who has also co-sponsored a parliamentary motion on the issue at Westminster, said he was “deeply concerned” only two employers in the past four years had been prosecuted for paying below the threshold.
He added: “This is despite the fact that an estimated 300,000 people in the North and Britain are earning less than the minimum wage.
“HMRC are failing low earners by not regulating the industry effectively. Indeed, the unit responsible for pursuing firms costs £8 million a year to run whereas it only collects £4 million a year in arrears.
“I am therefore calling for firms who are discovered to be paying below the minimum wage to be fined more severely and prosecuted more frequently.”
Mr Durkan added: “The SDLP have long stood for the national minimum wage (well before the British Labour Party proposed it) and will continue to fight for the protection of workers through guaranteeing at least the standard of a minimum working wage.”
Early Day Motion 849 co-sponsored by Foyle MP Mark Durkan read:
“That this House views with concern that only two employers in four years have been prosecuted for paying below the minimum wage; understands that HM Revenue and Customs has investigated 10,777 firms since 2009, collected £15.8 million in arrears and imposed £2.1 million in fines; points out that the unit which pursues firms costs £8 million a year to run whereas it collects just £4 million a year in arrears; notes that an estimated 300,000 people in the UK are earning less than the minimum wage; and demands a zero-tolerance policy so that all companies discovered to be paying below the minimum wage are named and shamed and that fines are increased by at least 10 times the present paltry ceiling of £5,000.”
