A Birmingham businessman honoured by the Queen has been named and shamed in a government list of employers who failed to pay its workers the minimum wage.
Aftab Chughtai was awarded an MBE for his “services to business and community relations” and sits on the board of Birmingham’s Asian Business Chamber of Commerce.
Last month the 47-year-old, who chairs the West Midlands Police Independent Advisory Group, was named as a member of the four-man Grenfell Tower fire taskforce.
But according to a list released today by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS) Mr Chughtai’s babywear store called Aftabs failed to pay a worker £14,142.
The DBEIS named 233 firms across the UK which in total had been fined £1.9 million for underpaying its workers.
Mr Chughtai’s family-owned business, based on the Alum Rock Road for the last 34 years, found itself on the list because HMRC ruled it had been paying a worker an apprentice’s wage for two years, rather than the minimum wage.
Mr Chughtai last night said the underpayment was an “isolated incident” and he had since implemented procedures to ensure the mistake wasn’t repeated.
He said: “There was a misunderstanding in that we were under the impression that the worker we hired was on an apprentice scheme and would be attending college part-time.
“As it turned out he didn’t attend any college lessons and the first we heard was when HMRC wrote to us to say we should have been paying him the minimum living wage rather than a reduced apprentice wage.”
He said he had paid the shortfall of just over £14,000 about 18 months ago and the matter was now closed.
He added: “It’s a shame this happened and I would warn businesses to be wary that the onus is on them to ensure their employees give them the correct information.”
But Labour MP Khalid Mahmood said a high-profile businessman like Mr Chughtai should have been “extra vigilant because he is a role model to many in the community.”
