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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
National
James Martin McCarthy

Northern Ireland businesses named and shamed by Government for failing to pay the National Minimum Wage

A number of businesses in Northern Ireland have been 'named and shamed' by the Government for failing to pay the National Minimum Wage to their employees.

Over 200 firms across the UK have been included in the list.

When it comes to the location of the firms, Co Armagh had the second highest number of businesses on the list with five companies named.

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The employers have been made to pay back what they owed, and in addition were fined around £7 million.

In total, nine companies in Northern Ireland were named by HMRC for failing to pay their employees fairly.

Among those named was Maghrafelt based bakery firm Genesis Crafty who failed to pay £4,440 to seven workers.

The firm went into administration in 2018 and were subsequently purchased by Hatch Bros Ltd.

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A spokesperson for Hatch Bros Ltd said that HMRC conducted an investigation into underpayments made in the years up to the period of administration in August 2018 but did not conclude their investigation until after administration, in 2019.

"Hatch Bros cooperated fully with HMRC, not only to identify the historical underpayments but also to implement new systems which would prevent any such underpayments in future," they said.

"Hatch Bros also stepped in to pay the historical company fines and full compensation to all of the employees who had been impacted, including those who no longer even worked for the bakery. The case officer at the time described Hatch's actions as exemplary.

"Hatch Bros subsequently changed the trading name of the company from Genesis Crafty to Genesis Bakery."

Interim CEO Gwynneth Cockcroft added: "Genesis Bakery is in fact currently one of the highest paying food manufacturers in Northern Ireland. Our base hourly rate is £11, regardless of age and is well above the minimum wage amount of £5.28 for under 18s and £10.42 for over 23s.

"It is obviously extremely disappointing that the company should be named in this list when we quite clearly have done nothing wrong and everything right in this regard, and are merely a victim of the reporting system."

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