A COLCHESTER restaurant is one of dozens of businesses across the UK “named and shamed” by the Government for failing to pay employees the minimum wage.

Lebanese restaurant Albatta, in Sir Isaac’s Walk, was fined after failing to pay £7,858.16 to five members of staff.

The restaurant, which is the trading arm of Eat Food Limited, is one of 139 firms targeted by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy as part of a crackdown on breaches of employment law.

The 139 named companies were investigated between 2016 and 2018 and found to have failed to pay a total of £6.7 million to more than 95,000 workers.

The list includes some big brands, including supermarket giant Tesco.

Tesco said it was “disappointed and surprised” to have been named as it had identified a technical issue in 2017 which meant some workers’ pay “inadvertently” fell below minimum wage. It said all those affected had been reimbursed.

Ministers said the list of companies should be a wake up call to “rogue” bosses.

It is the first time the Government has named and shamed companies for failing to pay the national minimum wage since 2018, following reforms to the process to ensure only the worst offenders are targeted.

Business minister Paul Scully said: “Paying the minimum wage is not optional, it is the law.

“It is never acceptable for any employer to short-change their workers, but it is especially disappointing to see huge household names who absolutely should know better on this list.

“This should serve as a wake-up call to named employers and a reminder to everyone of the importance of paying workers what they are legally entitled to. Make no mistake, those who fail to follow minimum wage rules will be caught out and made to pay up.”

Unions have labelled the issue a “national scandal”.

Many low-paid employees were made to cover work costs, such as paying for uniform, training or parking fees and some employers failed to raise employees’ pay after a birthday.

The Gazette attempted to contact Albatta but had not received a response by the time of going to press.

A Tesco spokesman said: “Back in 2017 we identified a technical issue that meant some colleagues’ pay inadvertently fell below the national minimum wage.

“We are very sorry this happened and proactively reported the issue to HMRC at the time. All our colleagues were reimbursed in full and we immediately changed our policies to prevent this happening again. In most cases the reimbursement was £10 or less.

“Once we uncovered this mistake, we took a proactive, transparent and cooperative approach with HMRC.

“We are therefore extremely disappointed and surprised to have been included in this list as none of the examples shared by BEIS relate to Tesco, and it was Tesco that self-reported this issue to HMRC in the first instance.

“We take our obligations to our colleagues very seriously and all colleagues were reimbursed in full in 2017.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “It’s a national scandal that so many workers, many of whom are key workers, aren’t being paid the minimum wage.

“Many of those who fail to pay their workers the minimum wage won’t be named today. The Government raised the threshold for naming employers compared with the old scheme, meaning fewer bad bosses are exposed.”