Nursery chain Busy Bees underpaid workers

A nursery chain is one of hundreds of businesses to be criticised for failing to pay money due to workers through the national minimum wage.

The Department for Business and Trade has produced a list of the companies that owed money to their staff and Busy Bees Nurseries, based in Burntwood, Staffordshire, is top for the number of staff owed and fourth for the total owed.

According to the league table, which covers the calendar years 2023 and 2024, it failed to pay £485,374.05 to 9,056 workers.

Busy Bees Nurseries said the underpayment was the result of "inadvertent errors", which it had corrected, and that it had apologised to affected staff at the time.

The company said it was "fully committed to making sure all our colleagues receive fair pay that is fully compliant with regulatory guidance".

It also said as soon as the errors were spotted it worked with HMRC to resolve them and that it had since continued to strengthen its processes.

The government said employers had been told to repay more than £7.3m in wages owed to workers and 389 had been issued with fines worth a total of £12.6m.

The money owed by Busy Bees accounted for one sixth of the total of underpaid workers affected.

The company that owed the greatest total sum was ISS Mediclean Limited, based in Weybridge, Surrey, which owed £1,506,959.68 to 6,580 workers.

Busy Bees operates hundreds of nurseries across England, Scotland and Wales, including in cities such as London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and Nottingham.

From next month, the minimum wage is due to increase again, with workers aged 21 and over due to earn at least £12.71 an hour, 18 to 20-year-olds due to earn at least £10.85 and apprentices and under-18s £8.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said: "The vast majority of businesses in this country do the right thing by paying their staff properly and playing by the rules.

"It's not fair on them when others are able to get ahead by not paying the wages their workers are owed."

Employment Rights Minister Kate Dearden encouraged employers to double-check their payrolls and added: "Nobody should finish a week's work and find they've been paid less than they've earned. I believe in a fair day's pay for a fair day's work."

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