{"id":9683,"date":"2016-09-05T16:08:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T15:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9683"},"modified":"2016-09-06T10:39:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T09:39:19","slug":"unprecedented-support-for-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9683","title":{"rendered":"Unprecedented support for reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This time last year Sports Direct shares were trading at over \u00c2\u01418 each as the retailer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board prepared for the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual general meeting at its Shirebrook HQ in Derbyshire.<\/p>\n

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The board no doubt thought it could shrug off a Unite demo involving campaigners dressed in Victorian garb and a looming vote on the re-election of its chair Keith Hellawell at the AGM.<\/p>\n

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But it failed to heed the warning signs. Fast forward a year to this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s AGM and the board and Sports Direct\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s majority shareholder Mike Ashley face a clamour of pressure from high profile investors over corporate governance and work practices.<\/p>\n

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It has been a torrid year for the retailer, which has achieved a unique feat in uniting the City, politicians and Unite in the need for Sports Direct to address deep seated problems with \u00e2\u20ac\u015bVictorian\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 work practices and corporate governance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Throughout those 12 months Unite has led a campaign against Sports Direct\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shameful work practices at its massive Shirebrook warehouse. Staffed by over 3,500 agency workers, employed through Transline and The Best Connection, and\u00c2\u00a0with a directly employed workforce of just under 200, conditions in the warehouse have been likened to a prison camp or a workhouse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been no coincidence that as troubles have mounted for Sports Direct and the scale of the abuse has been exposed that its share price has plunged to around \u00c2\u01413 per share and it now languishes outside the FTSE 100.<\/p>\n

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Damning evidence <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Hauled in front of the House of Commons business, innovation and skills committee, Mike Ashley was confronted by Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s damning evidence and forced to admit publicly that Sports Direct hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t paid the minimum wage after an undercover report by The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That admission enabled Unite to secure over \u00c2\u01411m in back pay for warehouse workers at Shirebrook. Not just for Sports Direct\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s directly employed workforce for whom Unite has union recognition, but importantly for the thousands of agency workers, denied union recognition who toil away every day of the year apart from Christmas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the victory over back pay is just one part of the story. While significant, it is only one of a number of steps needed to put right a series of abuses in a work place which would feel more at home in a Dickens novel than 21st<\/sup> century Britain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These abuses range from a draconian \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsix strikes and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re out\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 policy, to money being deducted from agency workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay packets for so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u015binsurance services\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to workers being charged for accessing their own hard earned cash because their wages are paid onto payment cards.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is before you get on to an accident rate, which means you are three times more likely to be injured working at Shirebrook than in agriculture \u00e2\u20ac\u201c statistically the most dangerous industry in the UK, or the reports of ambulance call outs for women experiencing pregnancy difficulties.<\/p>\n

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It is highly debatable whether the review by Mike Ashley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lawyers, RPC, will expunge this dark heart that has been exposed by Unite and blackened the Sports Direct name, thrusting Mike Ashley into the limelight for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Investors know it, Unite knows it and politicians know it. The problems run deeper, from the retailer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s addiction to zero hour contracts in its stores to the behaviour of the two employment agencies, The Best Connection and Transline.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sports Direct gives them an estimated \u00c2\u014150m a year to run Shirebrook and part of the Transline group had its licence to operate in the food industry stripped<\/a> from it by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) in 2014.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The remit of the GLA will be extended to cover employment agencies in other sectors of the economy, including warehousing, from October. This move, a key recommendation in Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evidence to the BIS committee, should not be understated.<\/p>\n

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Greater scrutiny? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Provided the GLA is properly resourced, and given additional teeth, then the Translines of this world face greater scrutiny and, with it, businesses like Sports Direct face continued exposure to reputational risk.<\/p>\n

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If Mike Ashley is serious about meeting his promise of making Sports Direct an \u00e2\u20ac\u015bexemplar\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 employer then he can remove this further reputational risk by ditching Transline and The Best Connection.<\/p>\n

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He and the board at Sports Direct could put in place framework agreements to move agency workers on to permanent, direct contracts with Sports Direct and pay the real living wage as a signal of intent.<\/p>\n

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Unite is ready and willing to work constructively with Sports Direct to make this happen, but action is needed, not open days which pretend \u00e2\u20ac\u015beverything is ok\u00e2\u20ac\u0165. A commitment to confront the real deep-seated problems that remain is needed for Sports Direct to begin to repair confidence and its battered reputation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Twelve months ago, at the last Sports Direct AGM, Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Victorian-themed protest marked the beginning of a stepping up of our campaign to restore dignity and respect to the retailer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workplace. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a campaign which has embraced a broad coalition and a range of tactics involving Unite Community members, football fans on the terraces, the media, shareholders, politicians and customers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As the Sports Direct board prepares for this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s AGM the voices for change have grown louder and the numbers of concerned shareholders grown bigger. With major players in the City signalling their discontent and backing the Trade Union Share Owners (TUSO) resolution on work practices, it is a call for reform which is unprecedented in its make-up and a call Mike Ashley and the whole Sports Direct board would do well to heed.<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article first appeared in Labour List<\/a>, September 5, 2016<\/p>\n

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

This time last year Sports Direct shares were trading at over \u00c2\u01418 each as the retailer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board prepared for the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s annual general meeting at its Shirebrook HQ in Derbyshire.   The board no doubt thought it could shrug off a Unite demo involving campaigners dressed in Victorian garb and a looming vote on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[388],"wps_subtitle":"Sports Direct battle unites workers, MPs and the City ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9683"}],"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=9683"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9686,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9683\/revisions\/9686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}