More than £400m was wiped off the value of Sports Direct as City investors and MPs turned on the company following disappointing financial results and revelations over pay and working conditions unearthed by a Guardian investigation. Shares in the UK’s biggest sportswear retailer slumped by 11% on Thursday...The Guardian revealed...how the retailer’s temporary warehouse workers are subjected to an extraordinary regime of searches and surveillance. Undercover reporters also came up with evidence that thousands of workers were receiving effective hourly rates of pay below the minimum wage. The company was branded a “scar on British business” by the Institute of Directors, was rounded on by its own shareholders and opposition MPs demanded that the FTSE 100 company be investigated by HMRC....[W]orkers are warned they will be sacked if they receive six black marks – or “strikes” – over a six-month period. Strike offences include a “period of reported sickness”; “errors”; “excessive/long toilet breaks”; “time-wasting”; “excessive chatting”; “horseplay”; and “using a mobile phone in the warehouse”. Dave Forsey [chief executive]... said...“We need to do a better job of getting our side of the story over. That’s what we’ll continue to do,” Forsey said. “We are more determined than ever to make sure we are a better business and have the welfare of our own permanent staff and casual staff in the forefront of our mind.”The Guardian’s investigation team found that staff at Sports Direct’s warehouse are required to go through searches at the end of each shift, for which their time is unpaid, while they also suffer harsh deductions from their wage packets for clocking in for a shift just one minute late...Asked if Sports Direct had been contacted by HMRC, which oversees investigations into the implementation of the minimum wage, Forsey said: “That’s not something we are willing to discuss with the Guardian.”The company said... “A number of issues were raised by shareholders at our AGM, which we have addressed, for example the inconvenience experienced by some warehouse workers from the logistics of the security process when exiting the warehouse. Following a review, the process has been streamlined, which has led to a reduction in waiting time,” the statement said...Casual workers were an integral component of the workforce, the retailer said. “To be clear, no warehouse workers are on zero-hour contracts, all have contracted hours with the agencies. In retail, casual workers find the flexibility offered by these arrangements very useful. We comply fully with all applicable legal requirements and will continue to keep these under review.”
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