TWO high street restaurants have been named for not paying employees the minimum wage.

Wagamama, which has a branch in Brighton and Horsham, and TGI Fridays, which has premises at Brighton Marina, were both on the Business Department’s list of 179 companies that failed to meet the legal pay requirement.

Wagamama topped the list for the amount of money it failed to pay employees, with a total of £133,212 not being paid to more than 2,600 workers.

A Wagamama spokesman said: “This was an inadvertent misunderstanding of how the minimum wage regulations apply to uniforms and as soon as we were made aware of this in 2016 we acted immediately to correct the position.

“In the past we didn’t realise that asking our front of house staff to wear casual black jeans or skirt, with their Wagamama branded top, was considered as asking them to buy a form of uniform and so we should have paid them for it.”

TGI Fridays was named in the list, released ahead of the national minimum wage rate rise on April 1, for underpaying 2,302 employees a total of £59,348.

A TGI Fridays spokesman said: “This is a historic payment which was paid last year and we have since reimbursed team members for the purchase of their black uniform shoes.”

Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said companies that short-change workers are forced to pay the money back and also receive a fine of up to 200 per cent of wages owed.

Also on the list of companies that underpaid staff was Studio57 Clinic, a sports therapy centre in Hove, for failing to pay £339.03 to two workers.

Speaking to The Argus, director Elle Phillips said a small error in the company’s employment contracts stated staff were paid for the number of hours worked per week rather than for a total of hours each year.

She said: “I have been in tears and turmoil over this and as a small company I feel we have been penalised for the lack of knowledge of the intricacies of contract law.

“It felt like a witch hunt where the investigator wanted to get as many businesses on the list as possible even if there was no actual wrongdoing.”

Another Sussex company, Pentlow Community Care Ltd, based in Eastbourne, failed to pay £5,725.38 to 36 employees.

The company has been contacted for a comment but we had not received a response before going to print.