JD Sports is to launch an investigation into conditions at its Kingsway warehouse near Rochdale after a Channel 4 documentary found workers claiming it was “worse than a prison”.
The retailer denied the claims, saying in a stock exchange statement it was “deeply disappointed and concerned by the footage broadcast by Channel 4”.
“Whilst we do not believe it to be an accurate reflection of our culture, the vast majority of our people or our standards of practice and procedures, we will be launching an investigation into the implementation of our policies at our Kingsway facility,” it added.
“While we maintain that the policies and procedures in place are robust and fair, it is clear that we need to do better in their implementation. In the short term, we intend to retrain all supervisory and security employees at the facility, as a matter of urgency, to ensure that those policies are correctly reflected across the workplace.”
A five-week undercover investigation by Channel 4, broadcast on Wednesday night, claimed there were harsh practices at the warehouse, including a “three strikes and you’re out” policy, intense surveillance and heightened job insecurity among agency workers. About 1,500 people work at the distribution centre, including hundreds of agency staff, while others are directly employed by JD Sports.
The investigation comes a year after Guardian undercover reporters found that rival Sports Direct paid warehouse workers at Shirebrook less than the minimum wage and operated punitive disciplinary procedures, such as a six-strikes policy.
The Channel 4 investigation into JB included video footage apparently showing a team leader at the warehouse saying to an undercover reporter: “No sitting down, no, you get fired. I’ve sacked people for sitting down.”
One worker said in the film: “It’s more worse than a prison. Prisons get more frigging respect.”
JD Sports denied the claims, saying it did not operate a “strike” policy and workers could not be fired on the spot.
After watching the footage, Iain Wright MP, chair of the Commons business, energy and industrial energy committee, said workers were “treated like scum”. He said the alleged three-strikes policy was “twice as bad as what we found at Sports Direct”.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said it was “increasingly clear that Sports Direct wasn’t just one bad apple, and that terrible working practices are taking place across the UK.
“The government needs to look seriously at how this sort of behaviour continues to take place in today’s Britain.”
JD Sports reported record first-half profits of £77.4m in September, up 66%, while Sports Direct’s profits fell 57% to £71.6m.
