SHIREBROOK: Union chief slams Sports Direct over baby’s birth

In a personal letter to Chad from Laurence Platt, Nottinghamshire area committee member for the Unite union, which represents Sports Direct staff, he states that more effort should be put into investigating working practices at the company.

He writes: “The incident raises questions about what management were doing allowing a heavily pregnant woman to continue to attend work and what the incident says about their responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of their workforce. In many ways the woman herself and her child, are the victims in all of this.

“There should be a thorough investigation into the management and their practices at Sports Direct, followed by criminal charges if the results of such an investigation warrant it.”

“There appears to be no interest from the police or indeed other authorities in the culpability of the management at Sports Direct in this appalling affair.

“To give birth in such circumstances is almost certain to leave the young woman disorientated and in a state of shock.

“To bring charges for neglect falls far short of action that we should expect from the authorities in such circumstances.

“The fact that she is from Eastern Europe and is probably very unsure about her rights in the workplace in the UK adds to the situation she finds herself in.

“The incident raises questions about what management were doing allowing a heavily pregnant woman to continue to attend work and what the incident says about their responsibility for the health safety and welfare of their workforce.

“In many ways the woman herself and her child, are the victim in all of this. That such awful things can happen in the work place is an indictment of the nasty side on modern management practice.

“We seem to be going back to a world in which workers have no rights at all and increasingly arrogant managements can behave just as they wish. When issues like this come to the attention of the public we could be forgiven for thinking that we are living in 1714 rather than 2014.

“The authorities concerned should be giving the mother and baby the support and care that they both need at this time and there should be a thorough investigation in to the management and their practices at Sports Direct followed by criminal charges if the results of such an investigation warrant it.”