AN OLDBURY takeaway has been named and shamed by the Government for failing to pay its employees the minimum wage.

Crusty Cottage sandwich bar on Bleakhouse Road failed to pay £3,037 to two workers.

It is among 21 West Midlands businesses which have been ordered to repay workers who were left out of pocket.

Business Minister Paul Scully said: “We want workers to know that we’re on their side and they must be treated fairly by their employers, which is why paying the legal minimum wage should be non-negotiable for businesses.”

The 21 employers in the region were found to have failed to pay their workers more than £57,000 in a breach of National Minimum Wage law, leaving over 500 workers out of pocket.

They are among 208 employers nationally which have been ordered to repay workers and faced penalties of nearly £2 million after breaches left around 12,000 workers out of pocket.

Companies being named range from multinational businesses and large high street names to small firms and sole traders, in a clear message that no employer is exempt from paying their workers the statutory minimum wage.

These businesses have since had to pay back what they owe to staff and also face significant financial penalties of up to 200 per cent of what was owed, which are paid to the government.

The investigations by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs concluded between 2014 and 2019.