UK’s largest independent co-op makes highest biggest single payout to a worker after admitting underpayment

Midcounties Co-op, the UK’s biggest independent co-op, has paid one of its workers £14,000 and is reviewing whether it should make payments to 200 other workers because it acknowledged it paid below the minimum wage, according to an article in today’s The Guardian.

The co-op underpaid a newspaper delivery man for four years by more than £14,000. The co-op said it is now considering whether it needs to make further back-payments to up to 200 other newspaper delivery workers aged over 16 who may also have been paid illegally low wages. It is asking workers who used to deliver papers and magazines from its network of 234 stores to come forward as they may also have been underpaid.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which oversees the minimum wage, said: “We are clear that when employers do not comply with the law, they will be found out and punished, and we would encourage any worker who’s concerned to contact Acas.”

Employment (Employee) Barrister - myBarrister
Employment (Employer) Barrister - myBarrister