J D Sports Still Up To Their Old Tricks

[mikey4444]

https://www.channel4.com/news/prison-conditions-at-jd-sports-undercover-investigation

Despite alll the crocodile tears in front of the Commons Select Committee,
Mr Ashley is still up to his old tricks it would seem, according to this undercover investigation by CH4.

Paying less than minimum wage....again !

[ToraToraTora]

shall we also prosecute sportsdirect?

[fiction-factory]

>Why is it that it takes CH4, and others, to bring this to our attention, before anybody acts.
Good question, mikey. Presumably no-one who works there has taken this issue up through an employment law claim. Maybe some are prepared to accept it because they know that on balance it's better to have a job on these terms. Channel 4 has exposed something but whether all the workers there will be happy at the exposure I am not sure as it could ultimately adversely affect JD and jobs.

[Bazile]

TTT
Might i venture to suggest that some people , apparently like yourself are good at finding alternative employment,if and when they want a change .

However , many people are not, for whatever reason, and have to 'put up' with 'whatever' employment they can get ,even though they are not slaves .

[ToraToraTora]

that's a good point FF, that reminds me of when the dwarves were protesting against the abolition of Dwarf throwing in the Australia!

[ToraToraTora]

Yes Bazile, I take that on board entirely.

[mikey4444]

FF...when this issue was brought up with Sport-Direct, there was a lot faffing around and denial from Ashley and the Company, but due to perseverance by the Commons Select Committee, and the media, he was forced to own up and he did something about it. He had to be dragged, kicking and screaming in front of the Committee but eventually he had no choice.

This illegal behaviour is being condoned not just by J D Sports, but by everybody associated with the Company, including the Agencies. If CH4 had not intervened, then its obvious that it would still be going on.

Again, just like Primark, we are talking about huge sums of money being made by the owners, at the expense of most vulnerable.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, but I was just wondering how this JD case (and SD before it) only comes to light in this way (perhaps by whistleblowing or by C4 staff acting as by employees undercover rather than by industrial action, employment law claims or prosecutions- for example for non-conformance with minimum wage

[mikey4444]

FF...I don't know for sure, but I suspect that CH4 acted after a tip off, although most Companies of this sort are now permanently under investigation by various forms of media.

[naomi24]

//Again, just like Primark, we are talking about huge sums of money being made by the owners, at the expense of most vulnerable.//

The vulnerable who are even more vulnerable when they have no work.

[mikey4444]

New developments :::::

"The Department of Work and Pensions says it has stopped JD Sports from using job centres to recruit workers – after an undercover investigation by this programme revealed shocking conditions at its warehouse in Rochdale. Today the company said it was launching its own investigation into working conditions"

Let me translate that last sentence..... "Today the Company said it was launching a new cover-up, in order to explain why it was caught out"

I can imagine what must be going on at J D Sports Towers this morning....executives running around, like headless chickens, desperately trying to find out how that undercover investigation team actually got into the building !

So, at last our Government has pulled its finger out, and actually done something.

What a pity it took CH4 to discover this, rather than each Government Dept. doing its job properly in the first place.

[naomi24]

//The Department of Work and Pensions says it has stopped JD Sports from using job centres to recruit workers //

Do Job Centres not give an indication of wages to be expected in a job advertised? I really don't know, but I can't imagine they don't.

[mikey4444]

It was said on CH4 last night, that the main reason why people took these jobs, when they had already heard of rumours of foul play, was that their benefits would have been stopped, for refusing to take up employment.

So, it would seem that the Dept. of Employment were unwittingly assisting J D Sports in their illegal activities, something that J D Sports must have greeted as manna from heaven !

[Cloverjo]

From what I remember of Job Centres, they mostly had low-paid jobs. I can't remember if wages were mentioned on the little cards slotted into the boards, but I don't think so.

The Job Centre in my town has closed so I don't know what it's like now, except that my son was expected to pay £5 a day bus fare to go to the next town and spend all day every day searching for jobs online on their computers. I guess people would rather have a craply paid job than do that or risk losing benefits.

They are being taken advantage of. I don't know how the CEOs and Philip Green type people sleep at night.

(Thankfully, my son went back to uni and now has a good job.)

[naomi24]

Cloverjo, I find it difficult to believe that jobs are advertised with no indication of salary. Surely job seekers would want to know what the job is likely to pay before applying? I would.

[mikey4444]

JO....they sleep at night because they are very wealthy and they know that that they are, in effect, untouchable. Their vast amounts of cash keeps them warm at night.

Look how Green is responding to the debacle over the BHS pension fund. He promised, live before the Commons Select Committee, last summer, that he "had a plan and that he would be acting very soon"

Complete lack of any action since of course !

Shysters, everyone one of them !

[jackthehat]

The jobs are advertised as paying 'minimum wage'; they cannot be lower, by law.
However, the companies involved contrive to operate in such a manner that they stretch this amount across enough hours with various practices so as reduce the amount they actually pay their staff.

[naomi24]

First Primark, now this. Go on, Mikey. Shut down all the businesses and put everyone out of work.

[naomi24]

jackthehat, thanks. I couldn't imagine that wages aren't mentioned.

[Cloverjo]

Nowadays, these would be minimum wage jobs, so people do know what they're getting - well, apart from unscrupulous companies docking pay for travelling time or whatever.
Back when I was scouting the Job Centre, you knew it was going to be crap wages. If you found a job you could do, you went for it. No need to think think about the wages.

[mikey4444]

Jack...thanks for clearing that up, although its obvious why J D Sports are operating in this way.

This quote is from the Companies latest Report :::

“Our continuing operations
have delivered a record
result for the year with
a headline profit before
tax and exceptional items
in excess of £100 million.

http://www.jdplc.com/~/media/Files/J/Jd-Sports-Fashion-Plc/reports-and-presentations/annual-report-and-accounts-2015.pdf

Corporate greed, on a grand scale, is the reason why this company is acting illegally.