A YORK restaurant which has been shut since the 2015 floods has been “named and shamed” by the Government for failing to pay two members of staff the minimum wage.

The Government said The Blue Bicycle (York) Limited, trading as The Blue Bicycle in Walmgate, failed to pay £3,479.46 to the two unnamed workers.

It said the shortfall happened between March 24, 2014, and December 27, 2015 - the date the restaurant was closed by devastating flooding from the adjacent River Foss.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy said it was one of nearly 180 employers nationwide it had “named and shamed” for underpaying more than 9,000 minimum wage workers by £1.1 million.

She said that as well as recovering back-pay for 9,200 workers, the Government also fined the employers a total of £1.3 million in penalties for breaking national minimum wage laws, and most prolific offending sectors in this round were retailers, hospitality businesses and hairdressers.

She said the Blue Bicycle had been fined but she could not say how much, and added it was likely the two employees had received the back pay they were owed. Business Minister Andrew Griffiths said there were no excuses for short-changing workers.

Other businesses which were flooded when the Foss burst its banks just after Christmas 2015 have long since reopened but the Blue Bicycle has been unable to do so because of the extent of the damage.

The Press reported last December that the owners did not now anticipate re-opening until mid-late 2018, saying they were “working tirelessly behind the scenes to reopen as soon as possible but due to both the extent of the damage and the number of our properties affected, the work is taking some time to complete”.

The Press asked the restaurant for comment yesterday on both the re-opening and the fine but no one had responded by our deadline.