By Tony O’Reilly-
Homecare, hotels, solicitors, restaurants and retailers among businesses to be named and shamed, and ordered to repay workers after Government enforcement action in relation to below minimum wage payment.
There is something deeply uncomfortable about a worker doing a day’s work, completing a week’s shifts and receiving less than the amount the law says they are entitled to. That is why a new Government list naming employers who failed to pay the National Minimum Wage deserves far more attention than a passing headline.
AD: Capeesh Restaurant
The Eye Of Media.com has today joined The Irish Media in naming and shaming those businesses in northern ireland that violate the legal minimum wage for its employees. Among almost 660 employers named across the UK are 36 Northern Ireland-based organisations, spanning homecare, hospitality, retail, food, manufacturing and the legal profession. Together, the Northern Ireland cases involved 853 workers and £147,393.21 in unpaid wages, according to the Department for Business and Trade
The figures may look modest beside the millions involved in some of the largest cases elsewhere in Britain. But that would miss the point. Behind every pound listed in a Government spreadsheet is a worker who was entitled to receive it. And behind some of the Northern Ireland entries are hundreds of workers.
The largest local case involved Peninsula Care Services (NI) Ltd in Newtownards, (pictured)which was found to have failed to pay £42,013.29 to 125 workers. It is by far the biggest Northern Ireland sum in the latest list. That the business operates in homecare makes the case particularly striking.
AD: Oysterian Sea Food Restaurant And Bar
Care workers look after some of the most vulnerable people in society — yet workers providing that essential service were among those affected by a minimum-wage breach identified by the authorities. Another eye-catching case concerns Patterson & Rocks Solicitors in Newry, which was found to have failed to pay £16,622.92 to three workers. Then there is Rosemary Gawn Solicitors in Ballymena, where the Government says £8,944.60 was owed to one worker.
The contrast is extraordinary.In one case, more than £16,000 was spread across three workers. In another, nearly £9,000 was attributed to a single employer. The list also reaches into Northern Ireland’s hospitality industry. The Bushmills Inn Hotel was found to have failed to pay £6,914.54 to 100 workers.
That works out at roughly £69 per worker on average — a relatively small amount per person, but multiplied across a workforce it becomes thousands of pounds. JJB Hotels Ltd, trading as the Balmoral Hotel in Belfast, was found to have failed to pay £2,356.42 to 66 workers. Other names include Portstewart Golf Club, where the Government says £3,029.66 was owed to 11 workers, and Bishop’s Gate Hotel in Derry, where £896.31 was owed to 13 workers.
The legal profession, meanwhile, is represented alongside businesses from sectors traditionally associated with low-paid work. Ó Muirigh Solicitors in Belfast was listed over £1,776.56 owed to one worker. There are also retailers and food businesses among the Northern Ireland cases. William Moutray & Sons Ltd, trading as Costcutter Moutray’s in Craigavon, was found to have failed to pay £6,334.89 to 116 workers.
A&M Retail Ltd, trading as McAtamney’s Traditional Butchers in Garvagh, was listed over £4,400.09 involving eight workers. And Gillis Foods Ltd, trading as Crosskeys Meats in Ballymena, was found to have failed to pay £942.86 to 11 workers. These are not merely numbers on a Government website.
A missing payment for a low paid worker can mean a missed bill, an overdraft charge, less money for food or heating, or another week of choosing which household expense can wait.That is why minimum-wage enforcement matters. The legal minimum is precisely that-a minimum.
From April 2026, workers aged 21 and over are legally entitled to at least £12.71 an hour. The rate for workers aged 18 to 20 is £10.85, while workers under 18 and apprentices are entitled to £8 an hour, subject to the applicable rules. The law requires eligible workers to receive at least the appropriate rate for all their working time.
And the problem is not always as simple as an employer putting an hourly rate below the legal minimum on a payslip. Government guidance makes clear that minimum-wage calculations can be affected by deductions and by whether workers are being paid for all the time they are legally entitled to be paid for. Even an employer that believes it is paying the correct hourly rate can find itself in breach after deductions or other calculations are taken into account.
That distinction is important when looking at the Northern Ireland list.Being named does not automatically establish that an employer deliberately set out to cheat its workers. Indeed, some of the biggest UK companies named in the latest round have disputed any suggestion of intentional wrongdoing.
B&Q, for example, said its shortfalls were unintentional and related to calculations involving geographical allowances, adding that affected colleagues had been paid in full. Five Guys similarly attributed its underpayments to technical differences in the application of payroll regulations and said it had paid affected current and former employees.
However, whether an underpayment was deliberate or the result of an administrative error does not erase the impact on the worker because the money was still missing, and excuses are in principle easy to make after being caught. Workers should not be made to work at an income below the minimum wage, by exploiting either the employees lack of knowledge of the minimum wage , or their vulnerability, especially for desperate workers who may have unsettled immigration status, and therefore prepared to take anything.
The latest UK-wide enforcement action has identified around £4 million owed to more than 27,000 workers, with penalties totalling around £7 million imposed on employers. Since the naming scheme began in 2011, the Government says more than £100 million in penalties have been issued against more than 5,200 employers, while over £66 million has been repaid to about 650,000 workers.
This latest publication is also significant because it comes after the launch of the Fair Work Agency, a new body intended to bring enforcement of key employment rights under one roof.The agency began operating in April and is being given responsibility for enforcing workplace rights, including the minimum wage, with further employment protections expected to come within its remit. HM Revenue and Customs continues to enforce minimum-wage law on behalf of the agency.
The overall message being given by Northern Ireland workers is that employees do not have to be employed by a giant corporation to have employment rights. Rights are not simply lost because one works in a hotel, care home, restaurant, shop, solicitor’s office or small local business. And one should not have to choose between keeping your job and asking whether you have been paid legally.The Government says workers who believe they have been underpaid can seek advice and make a complaint, while workers and employers in Northern Ireland can also contact the Labour Relations Agency.
The 36 Northern Ireland cases should therefore prompt a much bigger question than simply which businesses have appeared on a naming list It should prompt workers to look at their payslips. It should prompt employers to examine their payroll systems. It should prompt customers, investors and the wider public to recognise that responsible employment is not an optional extra to be added after a business has made its profits.
For the worker on the lowest rung of the pay scale, £50 is not a rounding error. £500 is not an accounting inconvenience. And £5,000 is certainly not a technicality.It is their money.The law says they were entitled to it.And when that money is missing, the public has every right to ask why.
AD: Heritage And Restaurant Lounge Bar