Sports Direct challenge

In 2013, supported by campaigning group 38 Degrees, a Sports Direct employee launched a legal challenge to the use of zero-hours contracts by retail store Sports Direct based on rights under the Part Time Workers Regulations 2002 (see page 58). The store reportedly employs 20,000 of its 23,000 staff on zero-hours contracts, describing them as casual workers and denying them paid annual leave and sick pay. Legal advisers to the employee, Leigh Day, argue that there is no practical difference between the obligations of the zero-hours contract workers and those owed by their full-time colleagues. The case has not yet come to court.