Look at the causes of Sports Direct’s abuses

Following the death of 1110 people in the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in 2013, the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord was established. This legally binding agreement guarantees safe and decent working conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh. Despite public outcry Sports Direct was one of only two major British companies which refused to sign the accord.

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This article titled “Look at the causes of Sports Direct’s abuses” was written by Letters, for The Guardian on Wednesday 8th June 2016 18.06 UTC

When I worked on a factory production line in Birmingham in the mid-1960s, working conditions were, if anything, worse than those described by Felicity Lawrence, minus the electronic tagging and security searches perhaps, but plus the noise and dirt (A brutal and inhumane way to treat staff, and Sports Direct is not alone, Opinion, 8 June). The workrate was controlled by the speed of the line, much as in the great Chaplin film, Modern Times. So what was different? We were well paid, had permanent contracts, fixed hours and overtime. We were 100% unionised and prepared to strike if managers were seen to be out of order. But the thing that really equalised power relations was full employment.

Labour was in short supply, even with high levels of immigration. Managers generally worked to retain workers and provided facilities well beyond the job, such as subsidised or free meals in works canteens, even hairdressers at M&S, sports and social clubs, factory outings, bonuses for length of service and so on. At the end of the day, workers knew they could walk away and find an equally well paid, if equally tedious, job almost immediately. So what matters at least as much as collective muscle, as advocated by Lawrence, is the economic environment created by government policy. For over 30 years following the second world war, policy was to maintain full employment. Without this, even with strong unions, workers will be reluctant to exercise their rights for fear of dismissal.

It is no accident that wages have fallen well behind as a share of national income and that working conditions have generally worsened in the decades since a policy of full employment was replaced, under Thatcher, by the use of unemployment as a policy instrument to restrain workers’ power in the workplace. Power relations will remain skewed until full employment is restored. Not only will this increase equality in the workplace, it will reduce the costs to the state of subsidising unemployment via the benefits system, and low wages via tax credits. It is government policy that has created the conditions for the Ashleys of this world to flourish, not some act of God.
Roy Boffy
Walsall, West Midlands

• Following the death of 1110 people in the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh in 2013, the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Accord was established. This legally binding agreement guarantees safe and decent working conditions for garment workers in Bangladesh. Despite public outcry Sports Direct was one of only two major British companies which refused to sign the accord.

Stephen Brown, UK country director of Global Poverty Project, said at the time: “Sports Direct is sourcing from unsafe factories in Bangladesh. Workers are expected to work long hours, for very little, in unsafe conditions. We hope that Sports Direct spends some of its huge profits on joining with 90 other retailers to improve conditions rather than further lining the pockets of its owners.”

Sounds familiar?

Sister Gillian Price
Much Hadham, Hertfordshire

• Your editorial (8 June) suggests a responsibility of recent governments for the appalling working conditions at Sports Direct. But your reference to the role of tax credits is in danger of vilifying a policy upon which millions of wage-poor households rely and, ironically, divesting Mike Ashley of responsibility for Sports Direct’s actions.

The evidence that tax credits cause low wages and poor working conditions is not established, but the idea draws upon a lineage of argument – most recently used by George Osborne to justify cuts to tax credits and universal credit – that is more concerned with criticising collective provision as an inhibitor of free markets, than highlighting the problems of capitalism.

Your editorial also suggests, by implication, that capitalism has an acceptable face. This, too, is difficult to support. Capitalism is premised upon destructive practices, such as competition and exploitation, which are fundamental to its operation, rather than being encouraged by state support for the poorest wage workers.
Dr Chris Grover
Senior lecturer in social policy, Lancaster University

• Employee rights in this country are rightly protected by comprehensive legislation. Even if employees at Sports Direct were afraid of “whistleblowing”, they could have done this anonymously by complaining to HMRC, or they could have pooled funds and approached an employment lawyer to represent them. Clearly, it is unlawful to dilute earnings below the minimum rate and Sports Direct should repay all underpayments in full, with interest, and should be penalised appropriately.

However, if Sports Direct wishes to use zero-hours contracts or fire employees after six significant failings in six months, it is a perfect right to do so. The Guardian would do better to focus on the effects of global markets and of uncontrolled immigration when looking at why unskilled workers in the UK are suffering in the manner they are, and look closer at businesses that are importing products produced by sweated labour in the far east.
Tim Elster
Ashbourne, Derbyshire

• What are the qualifications for being on a select committee? A functioning ability to ask a searching question may be a start, I suggest. Nils Pratley (Financial, 8 June) is spot on as usual. The trailed “grilling” turned out to be only a “light toasting”. Someone should give the committee members tuition in asking follow-up questions. I am prepared to come out of retirement (former judge), if I get the call.
David Shannon
Woore, Shropshire

• Mike Ashley in his responses to the parliamentary committee revealed in microcosm the vital role that corruption – dishonest or illegal behaviour by the powerful – plays in everything we celebrate as success in this country. Probably Ashley’s biggest crime is being outwith the establishment that built this corruption to protect itself.
John Smith
Sheffield

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