It's 'bad businesses as usual' at Sports Direct


Last month, the Unite general union organised more than 30 events across England and Wales in protest at the “bad business as usual” and poor treatment of workers at retail giant Sports Direct. The action coincided with the company’s annual general meeting (AGM). 


Campaigners held an “emoji themed event” outside the AGM at the retailer’s flagship store in London’s Oxford Street and other Sports Direct stores around the country. They asked members of the public and attendees to use happy and sad emojis to say whether they think the retailer’s workers are treated with respect. 


The action followed Unite revelations that the company was using touchpads with happy and sad faces to gauge worker satisfaction at its warehouse in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, with those pressing the sad emoji called in for a meeting with management. Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the staff survey was “nothing short of an emoji con and a bogus exercise to gloss over past failures and some of the problems which still persist in the warehouse”. 


He said that reports from agency workers highlight crowded aisles, defective warehouse equipment and products stacked dangerously high, and that “health and safety is still a major cause for concern”. 


The union also revealed that Sports Direct is still advertising for casual workers with no guaranteed hours in its stores, breaking a promise made last year to “wean itself off” exploitative zero hours contracts.

www.unitetheunion.org/news/sports-direct-accused-of-emoji-con-in-bogus-staff-survey

www.unitetheunion.org/campaigning/support-sports-direct-workers---sign-our-petition