A large agency operating in East Anglia has been ordered to pay staff more than £1,300 in unpaid wages.
Starkings & Watson owes six employees a total of £1,357 after failing to pay them the minimum wage.
Name and shamed
The agency, and its parent company SWEA Ltd, are among a list of 389 businesses named and shamed by the Department for Business & Trade for underpaying workers.
The amount of the fine for SWEA Ltd, which is currently subject to an HMRC winding up order, has not been revealed.
Starkings & Watson, has been approached by The Neg for comment.
Dispute
Starkings & Watson, which describes itself as “Norfolk & Suffolk’s largest hybrid estate agency”, has eight offices, including its head office in Norwich.
It was previously in the news for a dispute with a tenant and sex therapist known as ‘Lady Pea’.
Other property businesses included on the list by the Department for Business are Lux Homes Property Group Ltd, Claremont Residential Ltd, Glenmore Property Services Ltd, Arcus FM Ltd, TOD Anstee Property Consultants Ltd.
A good employer doesn’t build their business on the back of unpaid wages.”
Peter Kyle, Business Secretary, says: “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,” he says.
“A good employer doesn’t build their business on the back of unpaid wages, and I look forward to working with the new Fair Work Agency to ensure its powers are used to crack down on those who think the rules don’t apply to them.”
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