Sports Direct workers "too scared" to take sick leave

valenta · 5 Oct 2015

BBC said:
Sports Direct site 'called ambulances dozens of times'

Ambulances were called out to the headquarters of one of Europe's largest sports retailers 76 times in two years, a BBC investigation found.
Many of the calls, for workers at Sports Direct's complex at Shirebrook, in Derbyshire, were for "life-threatening" illnesses.
Former workers said some staff were "too scared" to take sick leave because they feared losing their jobs.
Sports Direct said it aimed to provide safe working conditions for all.
'Working under fear'
A total of 76 ambulances or paramedic cars were dispatched to the distribution centre's post code between January 2013 and December 2014, with 36 cases classed as "life-threatening", including chest pains, breathing problems, convulsions and strokes.
A further seven calls for ambulances were made but cancelled.
The figures, which came from a Freedom of Information request made by the BBC's Inside Out team to East Midlands Ambulance Service, also revealed the service received three calls about women having pregnancy difficulties, including one who gave birth in toilets at the site.
The details have since been passed to the Health and Safety Executive which has said it will examine the data.
Of the 999 calls, six were about car accidents on a road or car park next to the centre, one was for a dog bite and at least two were for a store on the site.
It is not clear exactly how many of these calls were for the thousands of agency workers on site.
One of the cases involved 52-year-old Guntars Zarins, who suffered a stroke in the warehouse canteen.
His daughter Liga Zarina-Shaw said Mr Zarins had gone to work with flu symptoms because he was too frightened to take time off.
The family does not blame Sports Direct or the agency which employed him for his stroke but Ms Zarina-Shaw said her father was worried about his job.
"He [was] even scared to take one day sick," she said.
"Now I know why, because what is happening there is not normal," she added.
Mr Zarins was paralysed down his right side but has since had another stroke and has returned to hospital.
Ms Zarina-Shaw said workers were worried about a "six strikes" policy used by an agency that supplies staff to Sports Direct.
A document produced by one of the agencies states: "Any person who exceeds six strikes within a rolling six-month period will have their assignment at Sports Direct ended."
The document adds agencies can end an assignment "at any time without reason, notice or liability".
Unite said it had been told that last year there were about 3,000 agency workers at the Shirebrook headquarters of Sports Direct, which was founded by billionaire Mike Ashley.
Sports Direct has also reported accidents in its warehouse have doubled in the past financial year.
The firm put the rise in accidents down to on-site building work, which has resulted in "increased footfall and decreased workspace".

According to council figures, there were 38 accidents reported across 2013 and 2014, including a fractured neck, when somebody was struck by a moving object, a crushed hand from moving machinery and back and head injuries.
At the firm's annual meeting, Keith Hellawell, the chairman, told shareholders he was satisfied the company complied with health and safety regulations and any concerns were investigated immediately.
The firm has previously been criticised as "Dickensian" in its employment practices.

In a statement, Sports Direct said: "Sports Direct aims to provide working conditions in compliance with applicable employment and health and safety legislation and seeks to provide safe working conditions for all staff working in our warehouse."
Adding: "We have a good working relationship with our local environmental health officer and we work together to maintain and improve the safety of our working conditions."
The firm added that there were only 24 calls directly to its warehouse during the period covered by the Freedom of Information request.
The BBC was also told it was incorrect to suggest workers went to work poorly because of the strike system and that agency staff should not fear losing their jobs if they called in sick.

Original article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-34178412
How does he get away with it?

RailUK Forums

Minilad · 5 Oct 2015

I don't imagine for one minute they are the only ones. And expect it to get worse as this government try to erode workers rights

valenta · 5 Oct 2015

Minilad said:
I don't imagine for one minute they are the only ones. And expect it to get worse as this government try to erode workers rights

Yep, no doubt beginning with the passing of the trade union bill in a couple of weeks. All this as George Osborne boasts at his party conference that people don't need a strong welfare system, because his government is about "getting people into work".

DarloRich · 5 Oct 2015

but Gideon just said the Conservatives were the party of labour.............

valenta · 5 Oct 2015

DarloRich said:
but Gideon just said the Conservatives were the party of labour.............

Must be right then!

That's why they're cutting tax credits AND inheritance tax - definitely the party of the workers. But, of course, we can't possible have any sort of crackdown on these business owners - we don't want to stop these lovely people coming here and boosting our economy.

TheEdge · 5 Oct 2015

Without going down the obligatory Torybashing route of the forum...

This is because employment agencies are the absolute dregs of society and treat those who they "employ" with nothing but pure contempt. It doesn't surprise me that an agency would act like that. I worked for an agency for a while and I simply got a phonecall one afternoon; "terminated as of now, don't come in tomorrow", no reason given and in pretty much as many words. No offer of help to look for another job, nothing.

DarloRich · 5 Oct 2015

TheEdge said:
Without going down the obligatory Torybashing route of the forum...

This is because employment agencies are the absolute dregs of society and treat those who they "employ" with nothing but pure contempt. It doesn't surprise me that an agency would act like that. I worked for an agency for a while and I simply got a phonecall one afternoon; "terminated as of now, don't come in tomorrow", no reason given and in pretty much as many words. No offer of help to look for another job, nothing.

but surely the questions is why agencies seem to be able to operate in an ungoverned area of the economy with little incentive to offer anything better.

NSEFAN · 5 Oct 2015

DarloRich said:
but Gideon just said the Conservatives were the party of labour.............

You just didn't interpret it properly. It means you work until you drop.

Tim R-T-C · 5 Oct 2015

A lot of big firms these days don't pay sick pay and give Christmas bonuses etc. only to staff with 100% attendance, so you are encouraged to work on even if you are sick.

It is frustrating really, having staff in who are infectious and clearly suffering from a bad cold hardly looks good in customer facing roles. I've seen one person come in sick from a severe cold and the entire team fall ill over the next few days, when if they had been encourage to take a couple of days out to get better, there would have been no problem.

Haydn1971 · 5 Oct 2015

Tim R-T-C said:
A lot of big firms these days don't pay sick pay and give Christmas bonuses etc. only to staff with 100% attendance, so you are encouraged to work on even if you are sick.

I'd suggest it's more common with the companies that have a large "unskilled" workforce. By unskilled I'm including retail, call centres, simple factory work and warehousing, where staff effectively start being useful on the first day of employment.

Kernowfem · 5 Oct 2015

I don't live far from this depot at all, and do a fair bit of shopping in Shirebrook. I do believe sports direct are one of the biggest employers in the area. The community is an ex mining one, along with Polish and many Eastern Europeans. All are lovely people who stand and chat, and you do pick up on conversations and get to know what disgruntles a community.

Ive heard that sports direct are not one of the best people to work for, However I do stress that this is just hear say and what I've been told by others.

Tetchytyke · 5 Oct 2015

DarloRich said:
but Gideon just said the Conservatives were the party of labour.............

You misheard him, he said the party of hard labour.

TheEdge said:
This is because employment agencies are the absolute dregs of society and treat those who they "employ" with nothing but pure contempt. It doesn't surprise me that an agency would act like that. I worked for an agency for a while and I simply got a phonecall one afternoon; "terminated as of now, don't come in tomorrow", no reason given and in pretty much as many words. No offer of help to look for another job, nothing.

I agree with everything you've just written and I agree that agencies are a cancer on society.

This is a direct consequence of zero hours contracts, the use of which is something Big Business argues is good for the economy as it gives us a flexible workforce :roll:

Sports Direct are known as one of the more aggressive users of zero hours contracts, last time I checked 90% of Sports Direct's workforce were on zero hours contracts. But the 10% with permanent contracts- the senior managers- got to share a £150m bonus pot last year, so that's OK.

DarloRich · 5 Oct 2015

yet how many of us have bought things from Sports Direct? Does that not indicated we are guilty of encouraging such behaviour?

Chester1 · 5 Oct 2015

TheEdge said:
Without going down the obligatory Torybashing route of the forum...

This is because employment agencies are the absolute dregs of society and treat those who they "employ" with nothing but pure contempt. It doesn't surprise me that an agency would act like that. I worked for an agency for a while and I simply got a phonecall one afternoon; "terminated as of now, don't come in tomorrow", no reason given and in pretty much as many words. No offer of help to look for another job, nothing.

I have had similiar expierances to. Your right about the Tory bashing on the forum, I rarely post in this part of the forum because I can't be bothered banging my head against a brick wall. I support the Lib Dems but I accept that the Tories won in May. Under PR we have a Tory-UKIP government or some sort of deal, which would have been even worse. People can call the Tories idiots, evil and argue a two year old should be able to realise everything they do is wrong, but the bottom line is they are going to be in power until May 2020 regardless of how much some people complain.

Temp jobs are an excellent way to build up expierance after leaving school, graduating or loosing a skilled job in a declining industry, much better than being unemployed. Half the problem with their conditions is that people end up feeling semi safe and settle for them instead of continue to build up their CV, skill and move to a better job. Sports direct are an extreme example.

Labour made a huge deal about zero hours contracts, temp work and under employment in the General Election. It was fighting a general election in 2015 based on the situation in 2012 and it didnt work. Pay is rising slightly above RPI for the public sector and far above RPI in the private sector, unemployment is well bellow its reccession peak (although has stopped shrinking) and under employment has dropped massively. Sure, the Tories could do allot better but things arent terrible.

Antman · 5 Oct 2015

TheEdge said:
Without going down the obligatory Torybashing route of the forum...

This is because employment agencies are the absolute dregs of society and treat those who they "employ" with nothing but pure contempt. It doesn't surprise me that an agency would act like that. I worked for an agency for a while and I simply got a phonecall one afternoon; "terminated as of now, don't come in tomorrow", no reason given and in pretty much as many words. No offer of help to look for another job, nothing.

Hang on a minute you cannot make sweeping statements like that, I've done driving work for employment agencies and never had a problem indeed many treat staff better than many other employers.

If you don't want to do this cr@p job for a pittance then a migrant will, it's an employers market!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

DarloRich said:
yet how many of us have bought things from Sports Direct? Does that not indicated we are guilty of encouraging such behaviour?

But many other employers treat staff just as badly!

muddythefish · 5 Oct 2015

NSEFAN said:
You just didn't interpret it properly. It means you work until you drop.

Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, suggested at Tory conference today that by withdrawing tax credits Britons would be encouraged to work harder, like the Chinese.

Mr Hunt said: We have to proceed with these tax credit changes because they are a very important cultural signal. My wife is Chinese. We want this to be one of the most successful countries in the world in 20, 30, 40 years time.

Are we going to be a country which is prepared to work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard, in the way that Americans are prepared to work hard ? And that is about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success.

So there you have it. The lowest-paid in society aren't working hard enough to enrich those at the top.

And of course it was those at the bottom of society who created the financial crisis in the first place.

Chester1 · 5 Oct 2015

muddythefish said:
Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, suggested at Tory conference today that by withdrawing tax credits Britons would be encouraged to work harder, like the Chinese.

Mr Hunt said: “We have to proceed with these tax credit changes because they are a very important cultural signal. My wife is Chinese. We want this to be one of the most successful countries in the world in 20, 30, 40 years’ time.

“Are we going to be a country which is prepared to work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard, in the way that Americans are prepared to work hard ? And that is about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success.”

So there you have it. The lowest-paid in society aren't working hard enough to enrich those at the top.

And of course it was those at the bottom of society who created the financial crisis in the first place.

If enough people agree with you then Corbyn will sweep to power in 2020 and end capitalism as we know it. In the mean time how about the Unions make a half decent effort to expand their membership in the private sector and amongst temps? Oh wait their leadership prefer to go on about the evil 1% than extending collective bargaining rights. Temping helps to reduce unemployment but has its downsides. There would be less downsides if even half of temps were in a union. I was recruited into my union on a drive to unionise all the temps working in my office. All temps were offered 6 months free membership. I have never heard this happening anywhere else, if the left really cared about temps it would be the norm.

DarloRich · 6 Oct 2015

Chester1 said:
If enough people agree with you then Corbyn will sweep to power in 2020 and end capitalism as we know it. In the mean time how about the Unions make a half decent effort to expand their membership in the private sector and amongst temps? Oh wait their leadership prefer to go on about the evil 1% than extending collective bargaining rights. Temping helps to reduce unemployment but has its downsides. There would be less downsides if even half of temps were in a union. I was recruited into my union on a drive to unionise all the temps working in my office. All temps were offered 6 months free membership. I have never heard this happening anywhere else, if the left really cared about temps it would be the norm.

I agree but from personal experience the employers often bin people when they find out they have joined the union.

Tetchytyke · 6 Oct 2015

Chester1 said:
In the mean time how about the Unions make a half decent effort to expand their membership in the private sector and amongst temps?

It is extremely difficult for a trade union to force an employer to recognise it. The legal obstacles are high and, generally speaking, employers will threaten people who try and force the issue. I've had personal experience of that, with employers "suggesting" that union recognition would "affect the sustainability of the factory", i.e. vote to be in a union and we'll shut the place down.

See Grangemouth Oil Refinery for more details.

People on zero hours contracts are in an even more precarious position; the employer has no obligation to give them work, nor to give them an explanation for the lack of work.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

muddythefish said:
Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, suggested at Tory conference today that by withdrawing tax credits Britons would be encouraged to work harder, like the Chinese.

Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back for a bowl of rice a day.

Robertj21a · 6 Oct 2015

valenta said:
Yep, no doubt beginning with the passing of the trade union bill in a couple of weeks. All this as George Osborne boasts at his party conference that people don't need a strong welfare system, because his government is about "getting people into work".

Get over it. The Conservatives are in power after the General Election. Labour lost and is currently going down the pan. Why shouldn't any party in power get on with what they (and much of the country) see as necessary ?

yorksrob · 6 Oct 2015

muddythefish said:
Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, suggested at Tory conference today that by withdrawing tax credits Britons would be encouraged to work harder, like the Chinese.

Mr Hunt said: We have to proceed with these tax credit changes because they are a very important cultural signal. My wife is Chinese. We want this to be one of the most successful countries in the world in 20, 30, 40 years time.

Are we going to be a country which is prepared to work hard in the way that Asian economies are prepared to work hard, in the way that Americans are prepared to work hard ? And that is about creating a culture where work is at the heart of our success.

So there you have it. The lowest-paid in society aren't working hard enough to enrich those at the top.

And of course it was those at the bottom of society who created the financial crisis in the first place.

Without the Lib Dem's to constrain them, they just can't help showing their true colours.

jon0844 · 6 Oct 2015

It's been known for some time that many retailers in a local shopping centre were going to leave when their leases were up, and today another one gave notice to the landlord - and told their staff that they're all redundant.

Guess who this was?

Just like when Southern got rid of their trolley service and told people with just a week or two notice, so too did Sports Direct today. Of course management knew months ago, but held off telling staff so they didn't leave and get another job.

So now they've been given enough notice so they have to work their notice and then go.

I suppose it makes sense from a management point of view, but it's pretty low.

GatwickDepress · 6 Oct 2015

Speaking of agency companies (worst of the worst, my boyfriend was sacked from a warehouse job without even a letter or phone call), call centres are pretty dire places too. On the train yesterday I overheard a couple of St. Leonards Undeviating (work it out

) colleagues badmouthing the entire company on many things, including the targets they have to hit. These targets included having to meet a certain number of "accessories" per day, with one guy apparently telling them to focus on the elderly to meet them...

I am so glad I failed the phone interview for that place.

Robertj21a said:
Get over it. The Conservatives are in power after the General Election. Labour lost and is currently going down the pan. Why shouldn't any party in power get on with what they (and much of the country) see as necessary ?

Considering the flaws of the first past the post system and general voter apathy, I'm not sure it's possible to state this with any degree of accuracy.

richw · 6 Oct 2015

Robertj21a said:
Get over it. The Conservatives are in power after the General Election. Labour lost and is currently going down the pan. Why shouldn't any party in power get on with what they (and much of the country) see as necessary ?

The conservatives got something like 34% of the vote. Hardly much of the country.

causton · 6 Oct 2015

As an ex-SD employee does it surprise me? No!

muddythefish · 7 Oct 2015

Robertj21a said:
Get over it. The Conservatives are in power after the General Election. Labour lost and is currently going down the pan. Why shouldn't any party in power get on with what they (and much of the country) see as necessary ?

Does just over 25 per cent of the vote qualify as "much of the country" ? That means 75 per cent don't agree with you. Try again.

http://www.conservativehome.com/hig...n-over-a-quarter-of-all-potential-voters.html

valenta · 7 Oct 2015

Robertj21a said:
Get over it. The Conservatives are in power after the General Election. Labour lost and is currently going down the pan. Why shouldn't any party in power get on with what they (and much of the country) see as necessary ?

I echo what others have said. The Conservatives received around 11,334,576, the number of eligible voters is 46,420,413. Thus to say that the Tories received the support of "much" of the population is a huge exaggeration.

The British voting system enables them to have a majority at Westminster, but because the British government is a parliamentary democracy it doesn't give them a right to do "whatever they see as necessary", hence why measures put forward by the government are debated and voted on, not just accepted.

People will, and are entitled to, voice their opinion on the current government, it's the basis of democracy - get over it.

Tetchytyke · 7 Oct 2015

muddythefish said:
Does just over 25 per cent of the vote qualify as "much of the country" ? That means 75 per cent don't agree with you. Try again.

Even more than that, given the joy of First Past The Post the Conservatives have a majority because of the votes of 900 people.

http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/majority-2015.html

Hardly "most of the country".

valenta said:
People will, and are entitled to, voice their opinion on the current government, it's the basis of democracy - get over it.

Well indeed. The fact that I was outvoted doesn't mean that I'm not entitled to my opinion any more.

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