SEVERAL local employers are among those to be “named and shamed” by the government for not paying the national minimum wage.

Debenhams, which has been a fixture in Bournemouth town centre for decades, tops the national list for the total amount owed to staff.

However, it has pointed out that the average underpayment per employee was around £10.

The company failed to pay £134,894 to 11,858 workers, the government said.

Poole Plumbing, Slades Estate Agents, Fone Customize in Ringwood and Swanage Wimpy also figured on the list.

Miles Tarpey of Slades Estate Agents said its case related to a trainee member of staff who had been paid a basic wage and commission.

“We’ve been around for 25 years and take employment very seriously. We’re a very good local employer,” he said.

“We had a trainee member of staff who was getting a basic wage and a commission on top. As an average, he’s been paid well above the minimum wage but being a sales job there are months when sales are low and months when sales are high. On occasions it made our payment to him below the minimum wage but we were well above that figure on other months.”

The company had sought to compensate the employee as soon as the problem was pointed out, he said. It had since introduced a new pay structure with higher basic wage but less commission.

“We feel really hard done by but unfortunately we’ve just fallen foul of now knowing the law,” he added.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy named 360 businesses who underpaid 15,520 workers a total of £995,233. It said hairdressing, hospitality and retail businesses were the most prolific offenders.

Local businesses on the list were:

Poole Plumbing (at number 65), which failed to pay £3,276 to one worker.

Miles Tarpey, David Slade and Jason Hallowes, trading as Slades Estate Agents (number 94), who failed to pay £1,717 to one worker.

Fone Customize Ltd, of Ringwood, which failed to pay £307.75 to two workers.

All About the Water Ltd, trading as Swanage Wimpy, which failed to pay £211 to two workers.

At Swanage Wimpy, manager Mr Kaplan, who would not give his first name, said: “This is a little business. The mistake wasn’t ours, it was our guy who was dealing with the paperwork who made a mistake. He’s apologised and everyone was happy.”

Debenhams said of its breach: “Debenhams made a technical error in its payroll calculations, which resulted in an average underpayment of around £10 per person to the affected colleagues in 2015.

“As a responsible employer, Debenhams is committed to the National Minimum Wage, and as soon as the error was identified by a routine HMRC audit last year, we reimbursed all those affected. We have apologised to all our colleagues affected and have taken steps to ensure it cannot happen again.”