A luxury Perthshire hotel is among four firms in Tayside named as failing to pay workers the minimum wage.
HMRC carried out an investigation and found £31,000 was owed to 209 workers across Scotland.
The breaches took place between 2013 and 2018.
Dunkeld House Hotel LLP Hospitality – which operates the four-star venue in Perthshire – has been ordered to pay workers £1,322.
Eight workers at the hotel, where a night’s stay can cost more than £300, were underpaid an average of £165 between May 2017 and February 2018.
A statement from the hotel said: “During 2017 we had two visits from HMRC national minimum wage compliance officers.
“The first visiting officer gave us a clean bill of health.
“The second visiting officer was of the opinion that certain employees who receive an annual salary, rather than being hourly paid, should not have been treated as salaried for national minimum wage purposes.
Staff fell below minimum wage threshold
“This meant that a small number of our salaried employees who had worked additional hours for which they later received paid time off in lieu had fallen below the national minimum wage threshold under HMRC’s interpretation of the rules.
“This was because the paid time off in lieu was not taken in the same pay reference period as the additional hours worked.
“We have always ensured that our hourly rates of pay have been above the national minimum wage threshold but have amended our ongoing procedures to ensure that the scenario described above cannot happen again.
“All employees affected have been reimbursed in line with HMRC’s calculation of what was underpaid.”
Dundee oil and gas firm underpaid three workers
Meanwhile Pacson Ltd, of Dundee, has been fined £1,603.20 to three workers who were underpaid between June and October 2016.
The company, based in Claverhouse Industrial Estate, makes valves for the oil and gas industry.
A spokesman said: “Pacson has always supported and adhered to the minimum wage requirement and at no point have we ever knowingly and intentionally flouted this legislation.
“The underpayment we were required to correct related solely and specifically to the timing difference between an apprentice starting work with Pacson and starting their college course.
Appeal was rejected
“We were unaware we had interpreted the rules incorrectly around this specific point and when it was clarified, we corrected the position both retrospectively and going forward.
“We appealed our inclusion on the list, based on the fact that the government guidelines were unclear, but our appeal was rejected.”
Elsewhere, K McKeown Builders Ltd – based in Perth – owed two employees a total of £1,317.
Owner Keith McKeown declined to comment when contacted about the matter.
Salon now under new ownership
And a Dundee salon was also found to have underpaid workers.
One staff member who worked for Cosmetology between November 2017 and January 2018 was owed more than £750.
It was being run at the time by Nicola Jones, but was taken over by Gemma Leonard and Lousie Chisholm two years ago.
Ms Leonard, 38, said: “We opened in 2019, and since then we’ve had issues, mainly with Covid closing the salon.
“We were aware of this issue from HMRC. This is another thing we want to put behind us.
“Although the salon is under the same name, the HMRC investigation was nothing to do with us, and Nicola Jones is no longer involved with the company in any way.”
Nationally, the worst offenders were Western Isles-based MacLeod Garages Ltd, trading as Kiwis Garage, which owed one worker £3,663.
The only other firm with arrears of more than £3,000 was J Ren Ltd, trading as Mooboo, a bubble tea shop in Glasgow’s St Enoch Shopping Centre.
It owed £3,114 to 24 workers between 2014 and 2017.
Collectively, firms in Scotland were fined £46,000, with an amusement park among those caught out.
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