Staff at Sports Direct stores in Oxfordshire to be offered guaranteed contracts

Sports Direct have abandoned zero-hour contracts and will now offer retail staff guaranteed hours.

Ninety four per cent of the 3,200 staff members at its Shirebrook warehouse are employed through an agency, and will not stand to benefit.

“Unite believes the board can be bolder in the coming months and put in place a framework agreement to move bigger numbers of agency workers into direct employment, as well eradicating the use of short hour contracts such as the annualised 336 hours contract now in use at Shirebrook”.

Sports Direct has apologised for “serious shortcomings identified in working practices” at its Shirebrook warehouse, following publication of a report into its working practices by Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, who are legal advisers to the company.

The move highlights the growing frustration between shareholders in the scandal-hit firm and its billionaire founder Mike Ashley, who owns a 55% stake in the business.

The report said Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley, who was hauled before MP’s over conditions at the warehouse, “takes ultimate responsibility for any aspects of the working practices that were unsatisfactory”.

The report said that, as a effect, the human resources team at the base in Derbyshire will be “significantly strengthened” and will include a full-time nurse and a welfare officer.

The retailer added that it had commissioned RPC to do another year-long review of working practices and corporate governance throughout the group which will be presented to shareholders next year.

The report comes just a day ahead of Sports Direct’s annual shareholder meeting, at which several investors were set to vent their frustrations over the company’s corporate governance.

The retailer said the goal of the open day is to “enable the board to engage with as many people as possible in an open discussion about the business”.

On Wednesday Sports Direct will allow the public to attend the AGM and a tour of the Shirebrook site.

“If the company was serious about something substantially new then it should delay the AGM”.

Mr Wright called for a wider, more independent review of corporate governance practices at the company.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “This isn’t a whitewash in terms of a report”.

The report has been conducted by law firm RPC, which has been working for Ashley for some time, throwing into question whether it can act independently.

“While the report marks significant progress, not least the eradication of zero hour contracts in the stores and the six strikes and you are out system, Unite will be asking the board to go further and faster in a number areas when we engage with the [organisation]”.

Royal London Asset Management said Mr Hellawell’s position remained “untenable” despite the company’s promise to improve working conditions for both shop and warehouse staff.

“For Unite it has been their behaviour and the lack of oversight that has been the cause of so numerous abuses at Shirebrook”.

He added that workers could not rely on “bad publicity” to stamp out every instance of employers mistreating their staff and called for a ban on zero-hours contracts.