{"id":9345,"date":"2016-07-22T12:40:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-22T11:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9345"},"modified":"2016-07-25T14:04:52","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T13:04:52","slug":"feet-to-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9345","title":{"rendered":"Feet to the fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Victorian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 employment practices of Sports Direct were condemned by a damning business select committee report published today (July 22), thanks to evidence given by Unite.<\/p>\n

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The committee slammed Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley for either \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot knowing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 about practices at the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shirebrook warehouse or \u00e2\u20ac\u015bturning a blind eye to such practices in the interests of maximising the revenue of Sports Direct.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Bully culture<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The report was published in response to a business select committee hearing held in June, at which Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Steve Turner and Luke Primarolo presented detailed evidence showing how Sports Direct and the two agencies employing warehouse staff on precarious contracts had exploited workers by creating a bully culture of fear and paying under the mandatory minimum wage.<\/p>\n

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Among the practices highlighted in the report were the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsix strikes and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 rule, in which workers are given black marks for various infractions, including taking too long in the toilet or taking time off for being ill. Once they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsix strikes\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 workers are threatened with dismissal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Clocking in even a minute late would lead to docking workers fifteen minutes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay. Staff were also subject to intrusive searches at the end of each shift which required them to wait in a queue for fifteen minutes or more, time for which they were not paid.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks to a freedom of information request from Unite, it was also revealed that ambulances were called to the warehouse hundreds of times in the last two years, including once when a woman was so scared to take time off from work that she gave birth in a toilet.<\/p>\n

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‘Woefully poor’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The business select committee was most critical of the employment agencies which supply labour for Sports Direct. While roughly 200 warehouse workers are directly employed by Sports Direct, the vast majority \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about 3,000 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are employed by Transline or Best Connection on zero or short-hours contracts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The report highlighted evidence submitted by Unite showing that Transline had paid workers who do not have bank accounts on pre-paid debit cards which charged workers \u00c2\u014110 each month to use the cards. They were also charged 75p for cash withdrawals, 10p for texts to the card holder of any transactions, and \u00c2\u01411.50 for a paper statement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The committee said \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcosts incurred by the workers seem totally unjustified.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The committee sharply criticised the quality of the evidence given by both employment agencies as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwoefully poor\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and believes Transline may have \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdeliberately misled the Committee.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The report concluded that it would continue holding Mike Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bfeet to the fire\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and would conduct further investigations into the employment model Sports Direct uses. The committee will also follow through by reviewing the progress Ashley has made in changing the work practices in his business as he had promised.<\/p>\n

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Praise for Unite<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The committee had high words of praise for Unite in the report.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite the Union has worked hard to look after the interests of workers at Sports Direct and has collated a convincing body of evidence detailing unacceptable treatment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 it noted.<\/p>\n

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Committee chairman Ian Wright MP went further and said that, working together with the press and Parliament, Unite held Ashley to account \u00e2\u20ac\u015bon behalf of the public, in a way that shareholders of the company could not.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Wider issue<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Unite regional officer Luke Primarolo argued that it is Sports Direct\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s employment model itself which generates the shocking exploitation the union has uncovered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFrom our perspective, these issues stem from the majority of the workforce being employed precariously, either through agency or zero-hours contracts,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe road to dealing with this has to involve moving the workforce on to fixed-hour, permanent contracts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSports Direct is by no means the only company to engage people on such terms,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Primarolo added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat this highlights is a wider issue of real work today. The government needs to seriously consider what legislation needs to be put in place to protect people from exploitation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis has been a long and difficult journey but finally we are getting closer to justice and decent treatment for the Sports Direct workers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the scale of the abuse that Unite discovered was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshocking, even to this union.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Restore dignity call<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOrdinary decent people were being ripped off left, right and centre for hundreds of pounds,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was pay packet robbery on an industrial scale.\u00c2\u00a0 On top of that a culture for fear oppressed these workers into silence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one word out of line would have seen them lose their jobs for sure.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Committee and those we have worked with in the media to expose what has been going on at Shirebrook are to be congratulated for this investigation,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is pleased that we are now in the early stages of dialogue with Mr Ashley about how the serious problems at Shirebrook can be put right.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the way to put things right at Shirebrook is simple \u00e2\u20ac\u201c put the workers on fixed hour, permanent contracts,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGive them some security and the dignity they deserve.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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But Turner noted that Shirebrook is not an isolated incident.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe sad truth of the matter is that where people can be hired and fired at whim, bad bosses are never far away,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf the Prime Minister is serious about tackling corporate abuse, then she should start in our workplaces by restoring security, decency and fairness to working life.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Victorian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 employment practices of Sports Direct were condemned by a damning business select committee report published today (July 22), thanks to evidence given by Unite.   The committee slammed Sports Direct boss Mike Ashley for either \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot knowing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 about practices at the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shirebrook warehouse or \u00e2\u20ac\u015bturning a blind eye to such practices in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[534,388,389],"wps_subtitle":"New report slams Sports Direct practices revealed by Unite","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9346,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345\/revisions\/9346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}