Mark Goodge wrote:
Stuart A. Bronstein:

So there's no statutory penalty for failure to pay wages when due?

No. It's a civil contract, so not a matter for criminal law.
Employees are well up the list of priority debtors if an employer
becomes insolvent, so they are protected by the law to some degree
from the results of a failing business, but it isn't illegal for a
company to defer payment of salaries.

I wasn't thinking about criminal penalties. But the UK has protections
for workers - apparently someone can't be sacked without cause, for
example. So I'm a little surprised that the law doesn't provide some
civil penalty (payable to the worker) for failure to pay wages when
due.

Stu