Legal challenge to Sports Direct zero-hours contracts

Using crowd-sourced funding organised by campaign group 38 Degrees, a Sports Direct employee has launched a legal challenge to the company’s use of zero-hours contracts. The company is reported to employ 20,000 of its 23,000 staff on zero-hours contracts, describing them as casual workers. These workers are denied paid annual leave and sick pay, according to law firm Leigh Day.

The law firm claims that there is no practical difference between the obligations put on the retailer’s zero-hours contract workers and those owed by full-time staff: “Casual workers traditionally supplement an employer’s salaried staff, to be called upon when cover is needed or demand is high. In return for not having the security of knowing when you might work, you have the benefit of being able to choose when you work. Without that choice, you are not a casual worker. You are just a worker with no job security.” (Source: Personnel Today, 7 August 2013).

www.personneltoday.com/articles/07/08/2013/59589/sports-directs-zero-hours-contracts-face-legal-challenge.htm