THREE employers have been named, shamed and fined for underpaying their staff by hundreds of pounds.

The Slough and South Bucks businesses were included in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (DBEIS) list of more than 350 UK employers outed for underpaying 15,520 workers the National Living Wage rate of £7.20 per hour - the first announcement of its kind.

Thamesline Couriers, in Plymouth Road, Slough, failed to pay four workers £297.91 in total.

Slough Southern Fried Chicken Limited, trading as Southern Fried Chicken & Pizza in Baylis Road, Slough, was listed for failing to pay £121.34 to two employees, while Lambourne Golf Club, in Dropmore Road, Burnham, was named and shamed for declined to pay a whopping £660.59 to one of their staff.

HMRC issued fines worth about £800,000 nationally, with some fined up to 200 per cent of their arrears - the severity of the punishment depending on how deliberate the underpayments were.

A spokesman for the DBEIS said that almost all the arrears had been recovered for the workers and that the cases were now closed.

Business Minister Margot James said: “Every worker in the UK is entitled to at least the national minimum or living wage and this government will ensure they get it. That is why we have named and shamed more than 350 employers who failed to pay the legal minimum, sending the clear message to employers that minimum wage abuses will not go unpunished.”

The DBEIS said that excuses for underpaying workers included using tips to top up pay, docking workers’ wages to pay for their Christmas party and forcing staff to pay for their own uniforms out of their own pocket.

The publication of the unique list follows the government’s National Living Wage awareness campaign where the UK’s lowest paid workers were encouraged to check they are being paid correctly - and to report their employer if not.

There are still more than 1,500 cases open across the country.