HMRC need more cash to catch minimum wage dodgers

THE Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for greater resources to be given to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs Service (HMRC) to clamp down on employers who avoid paying staff the minimum wage, following the naming of shaming of employers who have been fined for not paying their staff the statutory minimum hourly rate of pay.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills have published a list of 25 employers, amongst many more nationally, who have been fined for failing to pay staff the national minimum wage. One of the employers who have not been named is a Premier League football club, who had to pay arrears of £27,500 to over 3,000 of their staff working in hospitality. In total more than £4.6 million has been paid in arrears to those affected.

In the North West, 4 employers have been named and shamed for failing to pay their staff properly, totalling nearly £10,000. Christine Cadden and Nicola Banks of Renaissance hairdressers in Heswall, Wirral neglected to pay £7310.65 to three workers whilst Mr and Mrs Hampton of The Wheatsheaf Inn, Cheshire, neglected to pay £2057.88 to 5 workers. They were joined by Dove Mill Retail Outlet, Bolton (neglected to pay one worker £461.84) and HSS Hire Services, Manchester (neglected to pay 15 workers £149) on today's list.

Reacting to the news, Lynn Collins, North West TUC Regional Secretary said:- "It is shocking that so many employers – including some who pay their star players millions of pounds a year; are cheating low-paid workers out of the minimum wage. The penalties won by HMRC – which the government has rightly decided should be even bigger – should be a clear deterrent to any bad boss thinking about short changing their staff. We also need to see more of these immoral companies named and shamed.  HMRC staff deserve credit for winning back millions of pounds for cheated employees but they need greater resources to catch the many minimum wage crooks still out there."

Blusource Accountancy is rolled out nationwide

BLUSOURCE Accountancy, part of the Blusource Group, the leading supplier of strategic recruitment and advisory solutions to the professional services, commerce and industry markets has gone national with 2 new recruits.  Jess Lawes joins the team in the South East, and Rachel Mee joins the North West team. Blusource now has seven offices throughout the UK to service all accountancy practices in cities up and down the country.  Dan Rogers, partner for Blusource Accountancy, says:- "It's great to now be fully operational at a national level. Our fresh approach to the industry has been welcomed with open arms by the Top 20 accountancy firms and serving them well in one region has led us to deliver talent to them in their other regions and we thank them for this wholeheartedly. But we are equally encouraged by the number of independent firms within each region that also now recognise us alongside other long established players."

For the past 18 months, whilst watching the economy improve and anticipating the growth in the professional services arena, Blusource has been actively growing its number of recruitment consultants and its national network of offices.  The appointment of Jess and Rachel brings the number of new recruits to the Blusource's team to 9 since the start of 2014. Chief executive Andrew Springhall says:- "Weve worked hard over the last 18 months to reach this stage. We are 'obviously very pleased, but we won’t be resting on our laurels. We will continue to ensure that accountants out there know they can turn to Blusource to give them the best advice on their careers, and to open new opportunities without the exuberant sales pitch that comes from the traditional recruiter. When professionals comes to Blusource they can count on us to be life long career consultant, and this service is mirrored across our Legal division where we offer exactly the same service to lawyers and solicitors up and down the country."