W H Smith failed to pay workers minimum wage

W H Smith has been named among a host of companies that failed to pay workers the minimum wage, the BBC reported. The retailer failed to pay more than £1m to 17,600 workers. 

The firm joins more than 200 others that are being accused of over a decade of breaches, most of these occurring in the two years between 2017 and 2019. 

The companies face penalties of nearly £7m. Firms such as Marks & Spencer, Argos and W H Smith are required to reimburse workers, and have said that the breaches were accidental and have been corrected. 

According to the government, penalties were up to 200% of the money that was owed by the companies, but it is not clear how much they paid. The business department reported that the breaches affected 63,000 workers. 

W H Smith has said the issue had been a misinterpretation of the rules around uniforms. A spokesperson told the BBC: "Following a review with HMRC in 2019, and in common with a number of retailers, it was brought to our attention that we had misinterpreted how the statutory wage regulations were applied to our uniform policy for staff working in our stores. This was a genuine error and it was rectified immediately with all colleagues reimbursed in 2019.”

The retailer had reportedly required staff to wear trousers, skirts and shoes with specific colours but had not reimbursed them for doing so.