20 June 2019 
Caroline Jones, Employment tax director
Jeni Morris (EY) and Caroline Jones (BUFDG) presented a session on National Minimum Wage (NMW) and its implications for the HE sector. Jeni, who was an NMW inspector before joining EY, talked through the current penalty position, should there be a failure to pay NMW. It has recently been announced that the regular naming and shaming regime has been suspended, whilst it is considered whether future lists should be restricted to those employers who deliberately avoid paying NMW.
Given that there has been a consultation into NMW, which closed on 28th March 2019 and responses are currently being considered, the session focussed on the regulations as they stand at the moment and HMRC’s interpretation of them. These rules may well change, particularly in relation to the categorisation of salaried hours workers. We may also see changes in relation to the treatment of salary sacrifice for NMW purposes as is particular area of concern for universities providing work-place nurseries and accommodation to staff. Any announcement is not expected until the autumn, at the earliest.
There was a discussion on enforcement activity; how HMRC approach reviews and what the triggers for a review may be, including recent campaigns targeting graduates. A key area covered was the 4 different categories of worker for NMW purposes and how, depending on which category workers fall into, NMW regulations apply. The focus was those roles in universities, where there may be a risk of inadvertent NMW failures and there were a number of questions from delegates based on their university’s workers. Other areas considered included, what counts as working time and what counts as pay and the session finished up with the top 5 NMW risks.
