HMRC have just named 202 employers who breached NMW rules. You don’t want to be on the next list.

So, if you pay NMW rates check that you don’t make inappropriate deductions for :

• Food/meals
• Parking permits and/or travel costs
• Cost of, or lost, work equipment and/or Personal Protective Equipment
• Stock or till shortages
• Training costs
• Christmas savings schemes (when administered incorrectly)
• Uniform
• Childcare costs
• Salary sacrifice schemes egg cycle to work, pension and employer benefit schemes
• Worker purchase of clothes to meet dress code

Something as simple as requiring trousers to be a specific colour can make the cost to the employee be factored into NMW calculations. Are your staff required to work unpaid time such as:

• Additional work before and after a worker’s shift
• Rounding clock-in time to the nearest hour
• Unpaid travel time
• Pay is delayed/underpaid due to cashflow/cessation in trading/or ad hoc payments
• Paid for ‘regular’ hours or day rate, but a worker has worked for more time than this
• A salaried hours worker has worked in excess of basic hours
• Time for undertaking mandatory training
• Time worked during a sleep-in shift
• Trial shifts
• Overtime.

So, if an employer requires a security check or bag search after a shift, this must be counted as working time.

Something to think about and to get advice if you are not sure.