The BIS Select Committee report on ‘Employment practices at Sports Direct’ finds that the Deputy Executive Chairman, Mike Ashley, must be held accountable for the firm’s appalling working conditions and practices. The Committee heard a series of accounts of worker mistreatment, including staff being penalised for matters such as taking a short break to drink water and for taking time off work when ill – the ‘six strikes and you’re out’ policy. Allegations also surfaced of some workers being promised permanent contracts in exchange for sexual favours. Other evidence pointed to serious health and safety breaches, including in one case an ambulance being called for a woman who gave birth in the toilet. Iain Wright MP, Chair of the Committee, said that the evidence points to a business whose working practices are closer to that of a Victorian workhouse, but also indicated that Mr Ashley is now setting out some of the steps which Sports Direct needs to take to stop these practices recurring.

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