Prosecute firms over minimum wage

FIRMS who fail to pay the minimum wage should be prosecuted because it is a criminal offences, according to Warrington North MP Helen Jones.
She has slammed the government for failing to prosecute companies.
Speaking in a parliamentary debate on care workers Ms Jones highlighted
the plight of care workers on zero hours contracts or who were paid only for their actual appointments, not for travel time between appointments.
This meant they received less than the minimum wage.
She claimed there were an estimated 220,000 people in this situation, who could not meet their bills at the end of the week, despite working full time.
She said: “HMRC found that nearly half of the firms it inspected in the care sector were not paying the minimum wage.
“In what other sector of life would we say to a criminal, ‘we know you are doing it, and we would like you to stop.’
“We do that with the minimum wage, which is an absolute disgrace.”
The MP said that the most vulnerable people in society deserved better and added: “ The government have been trying to run care on the cheap, on the backs of dedicated workers who are being treated shamefully, and it is time that stopped. “