SPORTS Direct boss Mike Ashley admitted, during a grilling by a committee of MPs yesterday, that he was effectively paying warehouse workers less than the minimum wage, which is illegal in the UK.
The billionaire finally agreed to appear before the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee after months of refusing to do so. It was only after being threatened with ‘contempt of parliament’ that he finally conceded.
Undercover reporters working for the newspaper The Guardian last December exposed ‘Dickensian’ working conditions at Sports Direct’s warehouse in Derbyshire where workers were subjected to lengthy ‘rigorous’ daily searches.
The Guardian suggested that because the search time was unpaid, workers were effectively being paid less than the minimum wage – which is illegal. When asked by the committee: ‘In terms of the allegations that were made in December about searches, do you accept that the company was effectively paying workers below the minimum wage?’ Ashley admitted: ‘On that specific point, at that specific time, yes.’
Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of Unite which represents Sports Direct workers, also gave evidence to the committee. He said: ‘Dignity, respect and justice is a huge issue here and it is being denied to thousands of workers at Sports Direct inside this warehouse and across the stores operation. In the warehouse there is a culture of fear, when you have people under that much fear they come into work ill.’
Turner went on to describe the ‘six strikes and you’re out’ system imposed on the recruitment agency workers. Workers can receive a strike for a range of ‘offences’ including:
• Period of reported sickness
• Excessive chatting
• Excessive or long toilet breaks
• Using a mobile phone in the warehouse.
Turner told the committee: ‘If you refer back to the Freedom of Information request from West Midlands Ambulance Service, not only did the warehouse receive 110 call-outs for the ambulance service, you will see 34 for chest pains, you will see that there are strokes in there. You will see that there were five births or miscarriages or pregnancy related issues, one of which was someone giving birth within a toilet.’
Mike Ashley, however, made his anti-union stance crystal clear to the committee when he was asked: ‘Are you planing to speak to the trade unions? Ashley said: ‘Hopefully, this year’s AGM again, yes, no problem, its an open thing, they can come.’
Pressed again: ‘Is that the only time you speak to trade unions?’ Ashley replied: ‘Me personally, yes.’ He was later asked: ‘Would you be engaging with Unite to seek the feedback that they have gathered?’
Ashley replied: ‘Engaging? Engaging with Unite? Let me explain to you what my thing is on Unite. I believe that the people at Sports Direct are going to do a better job than Unite. Sports Direct can do a better job for the employees at Sports Direct than Unite.’
Ashley was asked by the committee about specific practices and whether they had changed since the undercover investigation in December 2015. He was asked about fining staff for late clocking-on. Ashley said: ‘What we had there was if you were a minute late you got docked 15 minutes pay.
‘You ask me what I think, I think it is unacceptable…If one of my kids went to work somewhere and they were two minutes late and they were fined 15 minutes pay, I wouldn’t be very impressed by that.’
