Marks & Spencer, Dune, Chanel fined for minimum wage breaches

Marks & Spencer, Dune Group, and Chanel Limited are among a group of businesses that have been “named and shamed” by the UK government and ordered to pay “short-changed” staff.

According to the Department for Business and Trade, 202 companies failed to pay the minimum wage to their lowest paid employees following an investigation by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs concluded between 2017 and 2019.

The government noted that “the businesses named in today’s list have since paid back what they owe to their staff and have also faced financial penalties” after leaving a combined total of 63,000 workers “out of pocket”.

“Paying the legal minimum wage is non-negotiable and all businesses, whatever their size, should know better than to short-change hard-working staff,” Minister for Enterprise, Markets and Small Business Kevin Hollinrake said in a statement.

Among those companies breaching National Minimum Wage (NMW) laws were some big-name fashion businesses.

Marks & Spencer failed to pay 578,391 pounds to 5,363 workers; Chanel Limited failed to pay 70,414 pounds to 250 workers; Dune Group failed to pay 21,088 pounds to 339 workers; and Oasis and Warehouse Limited failed to pay 10,964 pounds to 996 workers.

‘Unintentional technical issue’

A Marks & Spencer spokesperson told The Mirror: “Like many other organisations, Marks & Spencer is only named in the NMW list because of an unintentional technical issue from over four years ago.

“This happened simply because temporary colleagues were not paid within the strict time periods specified in the NMW Regulations and was remedied as soon as we became aware of the issue.

“Our minimum hourly pay has never been below the national minimum wage, it is currently above it and no colleagues were ever underpaid because of this.”

FashionUnited has reached out to Dune Group, Chanel Limited, and Oasis and Warehouse Limited owner Boohoo Group for comment.