Sports Direct has issued a lengthy statement – finally breaking its silence more than a week after a Guardian investigation found that temporary workers at its warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, are receiving effective hourly pay below the minimum wage.
The response on Friday did not mention the national minimum wage at all, and instead concentrated on the working conditions in the warehouse, with the company pledging: “The board has agreed that [founder and 55% shareholder] Mike Ashley shall personally oversee a review of all agency worker terms and conditions to ensure the company does not just meet its legal obligations, but also provides a good environment for the entire workforce. We expect him to start that work in the new year.”
The company did not say whether it would publish Ashley’s findings, or when he might report. What it did say regarding its warehouse workers is listed below – along with Guardian reporter Simon Goodley’s comments.
Previously Sports Direct said: “Sports Direct believes it’s in compliance with minimum wage regulations and takes its responsibilities extremely seriously.”
Sports Direct says:
Sports Direct directly employs a number of staff in the Shirebrook warehouse. The remaining workers in the warehouse have contracts with one of two main agencies the company uses to staff the warehouse. These contracts are on an agreed [between the worker and the agency] contracted hours basis. No Sports Direct employees are engaged in the Shirebrook warehouse on a zero-hours contract, and the main agencies have confirmed to us that none of their workers are engaged on a zero-hours contract.
SG: How do you define a zero-hours contract? The Guardian’s undercover reporters were never told they were guaranteed a set number of hours of work a week, and were initially given 24 hours’ notice if they were required in the warehouse the following day. They were both then put on a five-day shift pattern. Internal literature states that workers are “required to work any five days out [of] seven, including weekends” (but offers no guarantee that they will work that much) while another document states that an agency “reserves the right to end an assignment at any time without reason, notice or liability”.
Sports Direct says:
The two main agencies that Sports Direct uses to provide workers at Shirebrook supply workers to hundreds of companies nationally including many retail warehouses. The agencies use the same core terms and conditions for all their employees (totalling c. 35,000 across the UK), with some limited localised variations. A review of all the terms and conditions applicable to the agency workers supplied to Sports Direct (including, inter alia, the operation of the strike system) will be undertaken, and we will be considering implementing appropriate additional variations once that review is completed.
Neither agency workers nor employees are subjected to ‘naming and shaming’ via publication of a league table identifying individuals by name. The Company uses an anonymous ranking system to monitor performance. An individual’s unique number (known only to the employment agencies, the Company and the worker) benchmarks staff against the anonymised data of their peers. Individuals can check their performance, should they wish to do so.
The warehouse tannoy is not used to ‘harangue’ or ‘name and shame’ staff; the tannoy is used for logistical reasons, for example, to redeploy staff to other areas of the building or to let staff know that a truck is waiting for stock to be dispatched.
SG: The tannoy was used to tell workers to finish jobs as quickly as possible and to move to their next task while the Guardian was in the warehouse. The Guardian is not the only media organisation to witness this. A Channel 4 documentary in April, which also aired undercover footage, found that “some staff [were] named over the warehouse tannoy for not working fast enough”.
Sports Direct says:
Sports Direct does not penalise its staff for being ill. Sanctions may be applied if workers fail to follow the company’s reasonable sickness absence notification procedures, which are in line with industry best practice. The company is not aware of any occasions on which sick children have not been able to be collected from school by their parents. Sports Direct allows staff time off to look after dependants in such circumstances.
SG: Internal documents outline the “strike system” in place in the warehouse where workers are given a strike for certain “offences” that include “a period of reported sickness”. “Any person who exceeds six strikes within a six-month period will have their assignment at Sports Direct ended,” an internal document states.
Sports Direct says:
Neither Sports Direct nor the agencies it uses discriminate in favour of or against any applicant or worker on the basis of nationality or for any other reason. Both the company and the agencies with which it works are equal opportunities employers. There are workers of various nationalities, including local British citizens, currently working in the warehouse. Neither the company nor the agencies distinguish between workers of different nationalities; Sports Direct and the agencies value the contribution of all workers equally.
SG: This paragraph appears to be a response to a statement made by John Mann, the MP for Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, who said in the Commons debate on Monday: “Everyone in our area knows you can’t get a job in the warehouse at Sports Direct if you are an English native speaker despite 3,000 people working there”.
Both of the Guardian’s undercover reporters were British. However, local people do report that “Poles get the best jobs” at the site.
Sports Direct says:
Sadly, all companies have to be cognisant of theft from warehouse operations. As such, there is a need for some security measures to be in place at Shirebrook. One simple and sensible way of managing this issue is to ensure that workers do not wear the clothing brands stocked in the warehouse. This is not an unusual practice in many retail companies’ warehouse operations. There are of course numerous other brands that staff can easily wear.
All employees, agency workers and visitors, including executive management and board members, are subject to random searches on leaving the Shirebrook warehouse. Trained security staff conduct random searches and the company continues to keep the process under review, with the aim of reducing any inconvenience to staff as much as possible.
SG: The Guardian’s undercover reporters worked inside the warehouse in November. The searches were systematic, not random. The searches take, in the Guardian’s experience, one hour and 15 minutes a week. Workers at Shirebrook on the national minimum wage are not paid for their time while they are being searched.
