The only Hounslow employer on the government's latest minimum wage naming list runs KFC Brentford, recorded as underpaying 147 workers by £5,722.46.

One employer with a borough trading address appears in the government’s latest list of firms that failed to pay the minimum wage. The register gives its trading name as KFC Brentford, and records £5,722.46 underpaid to 147 workers.

The entry belongs to Hillcrest Catering Co. Limited. It is one of 658 employers named across the UK in Round 24 of the National Minimum Wage naming scheme, published on 3 September 2026 (Round 24 Naming Publication Spreadsheet).

It is the only row in the round with Hounslow as its local authority. Ealing and Hillingdon have three named employers each, Hammersmith and Fulham one, and Richmond upon Thames none.

What the register records

The spreadsheet gives one line per employer. This is the Hounslow line in full:

  • employer: Hillcrest Catering Co. Limited
  • trading name: KFC Brentford
  • partial postcode: TW8, in the Brentford and Isleworth constituency
  • low-paying sector: hospitality
  • arrears: £5,722.46
  • workers affected: 147
  • average per worker: £38.93
  • arrears period: 23 November 2020 to 2 July 2023

Hillcrest Catering Co. Limited is company number 00988614 and is still active. It was incorporated on 4 September 1970, its registered office is 133 High Street, Barnet, and its registered business type is unlicensed restaurants and cafes (Companies House).

What the list does not say

Three things are easy to get wrong about these lists, and all three matter here.

The figure is arrears, not a fine. It is money that was owed to staff and has been paid back. The government says around £4 million has been returned to more than 27,000 workers in this round, with penalties of £7 million issued on top (Department for Business and Trade). Penalties are not published employer by employer, so the £5,722.46 is not the amount this company paid in total.

The address is the employer’s trading address, not the scene. The department’s own bulletin for the round carries the caveat plainly: geography comes from the trading address postcode, and “in some cases, this may not be where the minimum wage underpayment occurred”.

Being named is not the end of the process. Under the enforcement rules an employer faces a penalty of up to 200% of the arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker and halved if the notice is paid within 14 days, and has 28 days to appeal to an employment tribunal (minimum wage enforcement guidance).

The chains with Chiswick branches are on the list too, but read them carefully

Two national names in Round 24 have branches people here use, and both are being reported locally as though the arrears happened on their local shop floor. They were not recorded that way.

  • B&Q Limited is the largest entry in the entire round: £456,934.72 across 4,530 workers, with a trading address in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
  • Five Guys JV Limited is the second largest by headcount: £54,642.47 across 3,699 workers, with a trading address in Kensington and Chelsea.

Both figures are company-wide totals for the whole UK workforce. The list is not broken down by branch, so nothing in it shows how any one shop or restaurant paid its staff. That is a real distinction, and it is why the only entry we report as a Hounslow one is the entry the register itself places in Hounslow.

Why employers end up on it

The department publishes the reasons behind each round. In Round 24, with some employers named for more than one reason:

  • 39% made deductions or reductions that took pay below the minimum, 257 employers
  • 34% failed to pay workers correctly for their working time, 221 employers
  • 16% failed to pay the uprated rate after it rose, 104 employers
  • 103 employers applied the apprentice rate wrongly
  • 71 employers got the accommodation offset wrong
  • 7 treated someone as self-employed or as an unpaid intern who was in fact a worker
  • 4 recorded the wrong type of work, which changes how the hourly rate is calculated
  • 108 were named for reasons that fit none of those categories
Bar chart of the reasons employers were named in Round 24: deductions or reductions below the minimum 257 employers, unpaid working time 221, other reasons 108, failure to pay the uprated rate 104, wrong apprentice rate 103, accommodation offset applied wrongly 71, worker status error 7, incorrect work type 4
Graphic by Chiswick Today.
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The deductions category is the one that catches hospitality: uniforms, meals, training costs, till shortages and salary sacrifice schemes all count if they drag pay under the legal floor. Unpaid working time covers rounding clock-in times, trial shifts, mandatory training and work done before or after a shift.

London had more named employers than any other region or nation in the round. By Chiswick Today’s count of the London rows in the spreadsheet, 86 London employers were named, owing £491,373.31 to 5,132 workers between them.

What it means for you

If you work in a bar, a shop, a care home or a takeaway around Chiswick, Brentford or Hounslow, the checks worth doing are short.

  • The rates since 1 April 2026 are £12.71 an hour at 21 and over, £10.85 at 18 to 20, and £8 for under 18s and for apprentices in their first year (current rates).
  • An apprentice aged 19 or over who has finished the first year of the apprenticeship moves to the rate for their age, not the apprentice rate. That single rule accounts for 103 employers in this round.
  • Add up unpaid time. If you are clocked out for training, handover or a trial shift, that time still counts towards your hourly average.
  • Check what is being taken off. A deduction for a uniform, a meal or a parking permit is only lawful if it does not take your pay below the minimum.
  • You can check your own pay at gov.uk/checkyourpay, get free confidential advice from Acas, or complain through the pay and work rights complaint form.

Round 24 is the first naming round since the Fair Work Agency was set up in April under the Employment Rights Act, bringing minimum wage enforcement together with holiday pay and sick pay enforcement in one body.

If you are hiring locally, our jobs page lists vacancies from employers across the area.

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