Sports Direct branded UK’s meanest employer by union after refusing pay rise for Shirebrook staff
Sports Direct has been branded the UK’s meanest employer by a trade union after refusing to offer its Shirebrook staff a pay rise despite making huge profits.
Unite members at its warehouse in Shirebrook earn just 9p above the minimum wage while half year profits show its parent company made £2.6 billion in revenue
Unite branded Sports Direct the UK's meanest employer after its parent company Frasers Group reported its half year results on Monday (December 4). Revenues totalled £2.6 billion for the six months to October 26, up by five per cent compared with the year before.
Yet its workers at its warehouse site in Meadow Lane, Shirebrook earn just nine pence above the minimum wage. Despite Unite being in pay talks with Sports Direct for the past 15 months regarding these workers, the employer has refused to give them a pay rise.
There are 4,500 workers at this site, however, just 500 of these workers are on contracts and the rest are agency workers. These workers, members of Unite, are paid just £12.30 an hour – nine pence more than the minimum wage of £12.21 per hour. Unite is calling for them to earn the real living wage, currently £12.60 an hour but set to rise to £13.45 per hour by this coming April.
Despite several meetings and Unite presenting several alternatives to ensure a pay rise for its members and the involvement of conciliatory service Acas, Sports Direct has not put forward a pay offer.
At a final meeting with Acas two weeks ago, Sports Direct management said it would be offering nothing to the workers at the warehouse.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "The way Sports Direct has behaved throughout pay talks is an utter disgrace. As its latest financial results show, Fraser Group and Sports Direct can more than afford to reward hardworking staff with a fair and decent pay rise but it is prioritising greed.
"Workers must not struggle financially while senior management and shareholders make so much money. Unite will not stand by and allow Sports Direct to continue to put profits above people.”
Frasers Group described its results on Monday as a ‘solid’ first half performance and referenced that this was driven in a large part by Sports Direct. It is also expecting to make a full-year profit of between £550m and £600m, while Sports Direct itself had a £3.20bn turnover last year.
Unite say members at the Sports Direct Shirebrook site have been left struggling to afford essentials amid the rising cost of living and the lack of stability due to being agency workers rather than permanent staff is taking a mental toll.
There are also numerous problems regarding conditions at the Sports Direct Shirebrook site. There have been reports of discrimination with parents of young children struggling to obtain appropriate shifts, workers being threatened with disciplinary action even in legitimate circumstances such as sickness absence and there have been incorrect calculations of holiday pay and instances of workers not being allowed to take the leave they are entitled to.
Unite regional secretary Paresh Patel said: "The lack of a pay rise is the latest in a long line of incidents of poor treatment of workers by Sports Direct.
“All our members have sought from day one of pay talks is the real living wage - a pay packet that would allow them to afford essentials and no longer struggle. This would be a drop in the ocean to such a profitable retailer such as Sports Direct but instead it is refusing to reward its hardworking staff for the role they have played in its financial success.
“This is utterly shameful behaviour on the company’s part. Workers must also reap the benefits of their employer’s prosperity and it is clearly high time for Sports Direct to rethink its miserly attitude towards its staff. Unite will not stop fighting for our members until that happens.”
Sports Direct has been contacted for comment.