OUTSOURCING firm Capita as well as Pizza Express, Lidl and British Airways were among the businesses named by the government yesterday for failing to pay some staff the minimum wage.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) released a list of 518 employers and businesses that broke minimum wage law over several years.

This means that the pay of some staff fell short of the national minimum wage or the national living wage, the latter being what the government calls the minimum wage for those aged over 21.

In total, nearly 60,000 people were left out of pocket, the DBT said.

Capita, whose major public-sector contacts make it one of the government’s biggest suppliers, was top of the list, owing £1.15 million to 5,543 workers.

It blamed “inadvertent underpayments” between 2015 and 2021, adding that all errors had been put right immediately.

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “Ministers are right to name and shame companies who fail to pay the minimum wage.

“Wage theft is bad for workers, families and the economy.

“Every pound stolen from a worker’s pocket is a pound not spent in local shops, cafes and high streets.  

“It’s time to make work pay.”