Ashley heading for clash with MPs
SPORTS Direct has been accused of ‘marking its own homework’ after announcing that founder Mike Ashley will lead a review into allegations about the way staff are treated.
The purveyor of cut- price sportswear lashed out at ‘unfounded criticisms’ about conditions for agency staff at its Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire and issued a point-by-point response to the claims.
Last night, Iain Wright MP, chair of the Commons business, innovation and skills select committee, invited Ashley to give evidence in the New Year about the firm’s employment practices.
It raises the prospect of a clash with MPs, because the last time he was called before a Commons committee he refused to attend, saying he was too busy.
Despite its detailed defence, the leisurewear group said Ashley, who owns 55pc of the business, would personally oversee a probe into workers’ terms and conditions.
It said the review could result in variations to the terms of employment for agency staff.
The investigation, over allegations it has said are false, drew immediate criticism from Labour’s former business spokesman Chuka Umunna.
‘This Sports Direct review is overdue and has the whiff of a pupil marking its own homework,’ he said. ‘Sports Direct should get an independent third party to do their review into workers’ rights – the company has a lot to learn.’
A source said the firm would not enlist an independent party to spearhead the probe because the process would take too long. It was felt Ashley was the best person to get to the root of the issues.
The review follows a storm of negative publicity about conditions for workers supplied by agencies at the Shirebrook warehouse.
This included allegations that staff were named and shamed in ‘ performance league tables’, harangued over the public address system and made to stay after their shift for anti-theft searches.
Sports Direct said the table of staff performance was anonymous because individual employee numbers were known only to the staff member, the company and employment agencies.
It said board members and executives were subject to searches upon leaving the warehouse, although it could not provide any examples of this happening.
Recently it has stopped searching all staff and introduced random checks. Sports Direct said the warehouse public address system was not used to ‘harangue’ people but, for example, ‘to let staff know that a truck is waiting for stock to be dispatched’.
The company rejected several other allegations, including that it favours staff from Poland and that employees were penalised when they were ill, and barred from collecting sick children from school.
And it said neither it nor employment agencies discriminated against staff of any nationality.
The firm said procedures used when employees are ill were ‘in line with industry best practice’, and it was unaware of any occasion on which a staff member was unable to collect an ill child from school
Sports Direct issued the statement in order to clear up ‘key facts’ about its employment practices.
‘We hope that by doing so, the unfounded criticisms will cease,’ it added. Staff at Shirebrook are not on controversial zero-hours contracts, employees in its shops are.
It said bonus schemes paid out to more than 80pc of casual workers in 2015, and a share-based incentive plan was open to 2,500 staff.
However, the company did not refer to allegations that staff were effectively paid below the minimum wage due to unpaid overtime, nor to penalties for lateness.
Sports Direct said it had contributed £1.3bn to the taxman since 2007. Shares in the company, down 15pc since the allegations emerged, closed 6.5p down at 570p.