Sports Direct has said that it will offer casual retail staff guaranteed hours instead of zero-hours contracts and ensure all warehouse staff are paid above the National Minimum Wage following a review into working practices at the retailer.
A report conducted by professional services firm RPC found “serious shortcomings” at the company’s warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, which Sports Direct’s board “deeply regrets and apologises for”.
The retailer will now offer its directly-employed casual retail employees the option of either a zero-hours contract or a permanent contract with a “guaranteed number of minimum hours”.
It will also suspend its “six strikes and you’re out” disciplinary procedure and pledged to pay warehouse staff above the National Minimum Wage.
The report said Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley, who was hauled before MPs over conditions at the warehouse, “takes ultimate responsibility for any aspects of the working practices that were unsatisfactory”.
Another recent report found Sports Direct was subjecting workers to “appalling” conditions where as well as not paying minimum wage, some workers claimed they were offered contracts in exchange for sexual favours, according to MPs.
The retailer’s employees are treated like “commodities” instead of human beings and it operates more like a “Victorian workhouse” than a high street chain, a damning report from the Business Committee said.
Sports Direct staff were punished for taking short breaks to drink water or for being off sick, the disturbing report from MPs claimed.
They held Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley accountable for “appalling” conditions, which they warned could become the norm across Britain.
Last month the chain said it would give more than £1 million to thousands of workers after admitting it did not pay them the minimum wage.
The move will see some workers at Sports Direct Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire receive as much as £1,000 in payments back-dated to May 2012.
The payments will be made to both agency workers and staff directly employed by Sports Direct, Unite the union said.
The billionaire Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United FC, has faced increasing pressure from shareholder groups in the run-up to Wednesday’s annual general meeting (AGM), with calls to overhaul its board of directors and launch an immediate independent review into working conditions at its factories.
The company has faced a string of allegations, with the Unite union making clear in its submission to the Business Select Committee that staff were subject to “Victorian” working practices and lived in constant fear of losing their job or facing disciplinary action for “excessive” talking or spending too long in the toilet.
The union said workers had likened conditions to a “gulag” or “labour camp”, with one woman giving birth in the toilet and other female staff making claims of sexual harassment.
The report said that, as a consequence, the human resources team at Shirebrook will be “significantly strengthened” and will include a full-time nurse and a welfare officer.
Several investor groups have also challenged the firm over its corporate governance structure and questioned the amount of power wielded by Mr Ashley, who owns 55% of the group and is deputy executive chairman.
To address this, Sports Direct said it will instigate an external report evaluating the board later this year and RPC will be instructed to carry out another “360” review of wider corporate governance prior to the 2017 AGM, where it will be presented to shareholders.
Ashley is still expected to face shareholder and union anger at Wednesday’s AGM and “open day”, where he will open the retailer’s factory doors to the public in a rare act of transparency.