Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that job applicants are paid at least the minimum wage for work trials.

National Minimum Wage legislation provides that, if an individual is a “worker” for minimum wage purposes, he or she must be paid at least the national minimum or living wage. Short unpaid trials are permissible if they are part of a genuine recruitment exercise.

HM Revenue and Customs take action against employers attempting to exploit workers by not complying with minimum wage legislation. They respond to all complaints and assess the facts of each case. Where they come to the view that unpaid work trials are in fact “work” under National Minimum Wage legislation, they will require the employer to pay any arrears to the worker and to pay a fine of up to 200% of the arrears.

The Government’s policy is that it is unacceptable to exploit workers through excessively long unpaid work trials. We are therefore preparing guidance that will bring clarity on the responsibility of employers to pay the National Minimum Wage. We will work with key business and worker stakeholders in developing that guidance.