Friday 9 October 2015

Sports Direct: you can't say you weren't warned

Sports Direct is back in the news, for all the wrong reasons. This week alone we have seen the following:

  • A BBC documentary revealed that ambulances were called to Shirebrook dozens of times in 2013 and 2014 because of employee illness. Some of these were clearly life threatening.
  • A couple who supplied workers to Sports Direct - at Shirebrook again - have gone on trial accused of modern slavery.
  • A group of former workers at Sports Direct's USC business have been awarded a protective award of 90 days pay after they were fired with 15 minutes notice. The parter representing them attacked Sports Direct for "disgraceful and unlawful employment practices".    

Sports Direct is a FTSE100 company, meaning that it's almost certainly sitting in your pension fund's investment portfolio. There are warning lights blinking here - both on employment practices and corporate governance - so Sports Direct's shareholders have a real responsibility to tackle it. No-one can claim they haven't been warned.

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