Sports Direct probe calls for clarity on workers’ rights

There are still UK businesses which do not treat agency workers as they would their own staff, MPs were told earlier as they studied the fallout from revelations over Sports Direct’s warehouse.

The boss of the Association of Labour Providers, David Camp said: “We need to make workers’ rights more clearly understood”.

He was being questioned by the Business Committee which is probing the status and rights of agency workers, the self-employed and those working in the gig economy.

MPs want to explore whether employment status rules have kept up with changes in the job market, and examine specific protections for agency workers.

However, Camp added it was not the case that “every agency is out to exploit their workers”.

Steve Turner, assistant general-secretary of Unite said employing agency workers has become a “method of choice” across all sectors of the economy.

Also due to go before the committee on Tuesday for a second time was Transline, the recruitment agency which supplies staff to retail giant Sports Direct.

The committee has previously complained that workers at the retailer’s Shirebrook warehouse were treated without respect.

Transline denied misleading MPs, prompting committee chairman Iain Wright to call on Sports Direct’s founder, Mike Ashley, to cut ties with the firm last year.