{"id":154027,"date":"2025-06-03T05:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/154027\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T05:44:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T05:44:10","slug":"underpaying-staff-was-result-of-new-clock-in-system-and-never-a-deliberate-act-says-co-down-hotel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/154027\/","title":{"rendered":"Underpaying staff was result of new clock-in system and never a deliberate act, says Co Down hotel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Whistledown Hotel in Warrenpoint was among 28 firms in Northern Ireland highlighted by the UK Government last week for failing to pay minimum wage to staff<\/a>, in some cases as far back as 2022. In total, around 1,650 workers in Northern Ireland were underpaid almost \u00a3160,000.<\/p>\n

According to the Department of Business and Trade, the Whistledown had failed to pay \u00a32,154.29 to 46 workers.<\/p>\n

The Northern Ireland company with the highest bill was Property Management Services, which has a registered office address in Annagh Drive, Craigavon.<\/p>\n

DBT said the company had underpaid 414 staff to the tune of \u00a354,852.44.<\/p>\n

Colum and Sarah Mc Avoy, the directors of the Whistledown, said the action which led to the discrepancy at their company had not been intended to deprive staff of the minimum wage; they said it was a \u201chistorical matter\u201d which had been identified in 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that the public will understand this issue arose during an exceptionally challenging time and that it was not the result of any deliberate wrongdoing,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

The issue, the directors added, had arisen when it charged staff refundable deposits for a new contactless fob system.<\/p>\n

They said: \u201cDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, we made the decision to replace our traditional clock-in system with contactless fobs in response to staff concerns and in line with best hygiene practices at the time. This change was made to protect our team\u2019s health and wellbeing, in a period of extreme uncertainty for all.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of this transition, a refundable deposit process was implemented.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing a routine review, HMRC later highlighted that this accounting approach had, in a small number of cases, temporarily brought some employees below the minimum wage threshold for a specific hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was never a deliberate act. The issue had not been flagged by our payroll system and was only identified through HMRC\u2019s retrospective compliance checks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair said they had taken \u201cimmediate action\u201d to rectify the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll affected employees were fully reimbursed, and the process was amended in direct consultation with HMRC to ensure future compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout the Covid crisis, we did our utmost to safeguard the livelihoods of our team, making full use of the furlough scheme to retain staff and maintain jobs at a time when our industry was under extraordinary pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many hospitality businesses, we were navigating an avalanche of sudden changes to operations, public health protocols, and employment regulations, all while trying to keep our business afloat and our team protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of our staff have always been paid above the minimum wage.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said the company did not appear on the most up-to-date HMRC list of companies who had not paid the minimum wage.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cWe remain fully committed to fair pay and responsible employment practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of our team members have been with us for over 20 years, a fact we are incredibly proud of and one that reflects the supportive working culture we strive to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Government spokesperson said: \u201cThe minimum wage is not optional \u2014 it is the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have issued clear guidance for employers on how they can pay their workers correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Whistledown Hotel in Warrenpoint was among 28 firms in Northern Ireland highlighted by the UK Government last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[778,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-154027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-margaret-canning","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114617848177298656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}