A BARROW employer has been named in an investigation revealing which companies are depriving their staff of minimum wage.

Sharps Media Group Ltd in Barrow was one of 233 employers from across the country failing to pay workers a full wage.

The review, which was carried out by the government, discovered that the Rawlinson Street business had failed to pay £2,946.21 to two workers.

All businesses named in the report will have to contribute towards the record fine of £1.9 million which was issued following the results of the investigation.

They have also been ordered to pay staff what is owed to them.

Business minister Margot James said: "It is against the law to pay workers less than legal minimum wage rates, short-changing ordinary working people and undercutting honest employers.

"Today's naming round identifies a record £2 million of back pay for workers and sends the clear message to employers that the Government will come down hard on those who break the law.

"Common errors made by employers in this round included deducting money from pay packets to pay for uniforms, failure to account for overtime hours, and wrongly paying apprentice rates to workers."

More than 13,000 low paid workers were identified as having been short changed.

Catalogue retailer Argos, which was bought by supermarket giant Sainsbury's last year, was found to be the worst offender.

It had not paid 12,176 employees close to £1.5 million, according to the report.

Sainsbury's, flagged the error in February, and said the amount was actually £2.4 million for 37,000 people when taking into account both current and former staff.

The shortfall was linked to the timings of staff briefings before they had clocked on to their shifts, and security searches which could happen after workers had finished a shift but all the staff have now received their back pay.

John Rogers, chief executive of Argos, said: "Sainsbury's prides itself on being a trusted brand where people love to work and I was, therefore, very disappointed to hear this and launched an immediate investigation.

Retailers, hairdressers and hospitality firms were seen as the worst industries for under-paying staff.

The Government has fined 1,200 employers around £4 million and forced them to pay out £6 million to staff since 2013.

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