JD Sports’ warehouse conditions said to be “twice as bad” as Sports Direct

London - Warehouses across the UK are under extra scrutiny following investigations into ‘poor’ working conditions at Sports Direct, Amazon and Asos. JD Sports is the latest retailer to be hit with a scandal, as an undercover expose from Channel 4 into the retailer’s Rochdale warehouse is said to reveal working conditions “twice as bad as Sports Direct.”

Set to air Wednesday evening at 7 pm on Channel 4 News, the investigation focuses on the treatment of (temporary) warehouse workers at JD Sports Kingsway Business Park site in Rochdale, which is said to supply all the retailers stores in the UK and overseas. The undercover investigation is said to have found that workers are forced to work under strict surveillance, following a three strike rule before their are out of a job. If workers sit down during their shift, chew gum or wear the wrong item of clothing, it is enough to warrant a strike, reports Channel 4.

JD Sports warehouse conditions said to be "twice" as worse as Sports Direct

In addition, warehouse workers also face rigorous and random security checks, intimidation from supervisors and job insecurity. Temporary workers at the warehouse say that working there is “worse than prison”. The expose also claims that all agency workers are paid less than minimum wage. Ian Wright MP, who previously led the inquiry into rival Sports Direct working conditions, said he was “disgusted” by what Channel 4 had uncovered and is calling on JD Sports to explain the findings in front of MPs.

“It’s twice as bad as it was at Sports Direct, it’s as simple as that,” said Wright, who chairs the Commons’ Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee to Channel 4. At the moment 1,5000 employees work at the warehouse in Rochdale, which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. New workers are employed via Assist Recruitment, an agency which has worked with JD Sports for 12 years, and offers zero hour contracts with minimum pay that give the agency the freedom to terminate a contract without any prior notice.

JD Sports has responded to the allegations made in the Channel 4 investigations, claiming “we dispute that we operate anything other than a normal business disciplinary process at Kingsway. No member of security or supervisory staff should be using the emotive language of ‘strike’. Assist are responsible for the disciplinary process of their own staff.” Assist Recruitment say JD Sports spoke on their behalf concerning the undercover investigation.

The sportswear retailer added that waiting times to leave the warehouse after a shift averaged 3 minutes, and employees were paid for their time - in spite of Channel 4 news claiming workers wait 30 minutes in line to enter and leave the site, unpaid, each day. “Our people are paid for the period of security checks on exiting the building. Our time and attendance system records attendance in a manner which ensures that all time worked, which includes exit out of the security checking area, is paid for,” said the company, although they did not state if this also applied to agency workers hired by Assist Recruitment, who declined to comment alone.

In a joint statement from both JD Sport Fashion and Assist Recruitment, the two companies added: “We are deeply disappointed and concerned by the allegations being made which we believe are misleading and not an accurate reflection of our culture, the vast majority of our people or our standards of practice and procedures. Our employees are vital to our business and their welfare is an utmost priority, so we take any such allegations very seriously."

"Once Channel 4 allow access to the footage and we understand the precise nature of any allegations that do prove to be accurate, we are ready and willing to investigate them fully at the earliest opportunity. Where there have been individual failures or breaches of our policies we will take appropriate action, and learn for the future.”

Photo: By ReissOmari (Own work Reiss) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons