Two pharmacy operators were last week (October 17) “named and shamed” by the government after they failed to pay staff the national minimum wage.
The companies - Jhoots Healthcare Limited and Amy Pharma - appear on a list of almost 500 employers who have been “fined over £10 million for failing to pay the national minimum wage”, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) said.
Jhoots Healthcare Ltd – which runs some of the branches under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand - was found to have underpaid 39 workers by a total of £6,629.43, while Amy Pharma underpaid two workers by £1,144.24.
Read more: Pharmacies ‘named and shamed’ for failing to pay minimum wage
Niall Mackenzie, chief executive of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), stressed that it is not only “important for employers to pay the correct minimum wage rates, it is also the law”.
“Failing to do so can result in grievances and potentially legal action, including costly employment tribunals, as well as being named and shamed,” he added.
“Contractually agreed”
A representative for Jhoots Healthcare Ltd yesterday (October 20) told C+D that the underpayments “relate back to wages paid in 2020” and represent “less than £200 per person”.
“Deductions were made from employee wages for several reasons, all contractually agreed with those employees and legally allowed as an employer,” they said.
Read more: ‘Just one pharmacy business’ owes locums £200k unpaid fees
They added that the company’s third-party accountants had “failed to catch that the legally and contractually allowed deductions…took a number of employees under national minimum wage during those payroll cycles”.
“When due diligence was complete with the accountants and HMRC, reparations were made immediately to the people affected and that was the end of the matter,” they added.
Amy Pharma did not respond to C+D’s request for comment.
Jhoots: “Independent businesses”
The Jhoots Healthcare Ltd representative previously clarified that the company and Jhoots Pharmacy Limited are “independent businesses” amid numerous allegations of financial mismanagement at Jhoots pharmacies.
They said the allegations only relate to the pharmacies under the ownership and operation of Sarbjit Jhooty and his company Jhoots Pharmacy Ltd and do not relate to Manjit Jhooty, who owns and operates 21 of the 151 pharmacies trading under the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name through his companies Jhoots Healthcare Ltd and Pasab Limited.
Manjit and several other directors resigned from Jhoots Pharmacy Ltd in August 2019, while Sarbjit is not a director of Jhoots Healthcare Limited and Pasab Ltd, they added.
Read more: Kinnock: Jhoots services are falling ‘well below the mark’
“There is no legal, financial or governance connection between my companies and those operated by Sarbjit Jhooty - we are independent businesses and share only the Jhoots Pharmacy brand name,” Jhoots Healthcare Ltd and Pasab Ltd director Manjit Jhooty said.
“The pharmacies that my businesses operate are all fully solvent, functional and continue to provide important services and professional support to their local communities and that is not going to change,” he added.
Speaking during a House of Commons discussion about the chain last week, pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock told MPs that “the services provided by Jhoots [Pharmacy] are falling well below the mark” and that it is “completely and utterly unacceptable” if it is not paying its staff.
