BUSINESS chiefs in North Wales are welcoming a crackdown on rogue employers who refuse to pay the national minimum wage.

Regional representatives of both the CBI and the Federation of Small Businesses said the move will help create a level playing field for firms and protect workers – particularly immigrants from eastern Europe – from exploitation.

The government has moved to toughen sanctions and said that firms which don’t pay the national minimum wage face a £200 fine for every worker involved.

The fresh crackdown follows evidence that thousands of workers were underpaid last year.

Employers who fail to pay the statutory rate, currently £5.35 an hour, risk a criminal prosecution and a fine of up to £5,000.

North Wales CBI chairman David Catherall said the vast majority of CBI members in the region were larger companies who paid well over the minimum wage. But he added that members had expressed concern about the activities of some employment agencies whose services were used to recruit large numbers of extra workers needed on short-term and other contracts.

"Those agencies are getting paid above the minimum wage but they are not passing it on to the workers they recruit on behalf of our members," said Mr Catherall.

Mike Learmond, the FSB’s regional organiser for North Wales, said it was feared that Polish workers who had moved into the region in recent years were among those missing out on minimum wage levels. Wrexham has seen an influx of up to 10,000 Polish nationals.

"It is widely believed that certain employers are flaunting the law in this respect with regard to migrant workers," he said.

"Unscrupulous employers paying less than the minimum wage have an unfair competitive advantage over the vast majority of employers who obey the law."

Mr Learmond said the FSB also feared that increases in the national minimum wage would lead to inflationary wage pressures on small firms as other employees sought increases to maintain their wage differential.

Speaking about yesterday’s crackdown, Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling said: "The vast majority of good employers need to know they are operating on a level playing field. These measures will help deliver that."

Between 2005-2006, more than 61,000 calls were made to the national minimum wage helpline, and the government helped 25,314 workers recover more than £3.2m in unpaid wages.

The TUC said the announcement speeded up the minimum wage enforcement process. The deadline for complying with penalty notices now drops from 28 to seven days and the minimum penalty will increase from £10.70 per day to a minimum of £224.70 per worker.