Hotel hits out at £15,000 fine for staff 'underpay'

BOSSES of a luxury Teesdale hotel say they feel aggrieved after being fined more than £15,000 for not paying the minimum wage.

Headlam Hall, near Gainford, was one of 260 employers “named and shamed” by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy for underpaying minimum wage rates.

The department said the hotel failed to pay £9,157.21 to eight workers.

But Headlam Hall’s operations manager, David Jackson, said the “so-called breach” related to a group of French hospitality students who were on placement at the hotel for three months at a time.

He added that the students used the time to improve their skills and language and did not expect to be paid other than board and lodging.

Mr Jackson said: “Our arrangement with the college in Limoges was based on the director saying explicitly in writing that the students were not to be paid, and did not expect to be paid, for this placement work, other than our provision of ‘board and lodging’ for them.

The Teesdale Mercury has seen a letter from the French college to Headlam Hall to say that “the pupils and students having their training period in the UK should not be paid by the establishments welcoming them”.

Mr Jackson added: “A further irony is that it seems that if they had been British students from a British college, this would not have been a breach of the law in any way. It is clear on the HMRC website that a student doing work experience as part of a higher or further education course will not receive the national minimum wage.”

Mr Jackson said the hotel has a policy of paying all employees above the minimum wage. He said: “We also have a strong history of UK and overseas students learning and honing their professional hospitality skills here – with one of the French students concerned already having been back to work for six months as a full-time employee of the hotel.

“As one of the area’s main employers for over 30 years, it is a shame that more than £15,000 – the level of the fine – which could have been spent on re-investment at the hotel or job creation for local residents, has disappeared on a legal nicety to do with European workers.

“With the hotel having been awarded four stars from the AA and a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, and also being rated Taste Durham Highest Quality Assured and Local Champion by our regional tourist board, Visit County Durham, we are pleased to continue to contribute positively to the local community and the wider north east economy.”

The government said retail, hairdressing and hospitality businesses were among the most prolific offenders in the latest round of naming and shaming for, among other things, failing to pay workers for travelling between jobs, deducting money for uniforms and not paying overtime.

Business minister Margot James said: “There is no excuse for not paying staff the wages they’re entitled to and the government will come down hard on businesses that break the rules. That’s why today we are naming hundreds of employers who have been short changing their workers; and to ensure there are consequences for their wallets as well as their reputation, we’ve levied millions in back pay and fines.”