Controversial £230m recruitment firm on brink of administration

Transline, the staffing agency which was embroiled in the Sports Direct employment scandal, is on the brink of administration.

It has confirmed it has filed a notice of its intention to appoint administrators in Leeds.

However the Brighouse-headquartered company said it is “close to securing inward investment” that will enable the company to continue to grow.

The court filing provides a buffer for the company of up to 10 days, protecting it from further legal action from companies chasing payments. It is sometimes used before a pre-pack deal is completed.

A Transline spokesperson said it expects news “imminently” about potential trading investments.

They said: “The company has suffered as a result of a continued move to tighter margins in the recruitment industry.

“We are close to securing inward investment that will allow us to drive forward with continued growth and infrastructure development, and have lodged the Notice of Intention to protect the business, our employees and our customers as we complete this process.”

Union Unite said that Transline is refusing to pay a portion of back pay owed to workers at Sports Direct’s Shirebrook warehouse because of non-payment of the minimum wage, and again called on Sports Direct to end its relationship with Transline and employ Transline temporary workers directly.

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said: “The current uncertainty surrounding Transline’s future is yet more evidence of the need for Sports Direct to wean itself off its overreliance on temporary agency workers at its Shirebrook warehouse.

“Transline must not be allowed to dodge its responsibilities or the back pay it owes for non-payment of the minimum wage at Sports Direct. It must continue to pay the wages of the tens of thousands of low paid agency workers it currently employs across the UK.

“A failure to do so would be the final insult for the many workers it has exploited through its draconian work practices.”

Amazon last month cancelled its contract to supply warehouse staff at five sites, including two in Doncaster, and its biggest shareholder, Colin Beasley, left the board.

The company, which turned over £229.4m in its last accounts, was labelled “disgraceful” following the emergence of poor employment and working conditions at Sports Direct’s Shirebrook factory.

Directors were pulled in front of MPs at a committee meetings, accused of having unfair contracts, including zero hour weeks, under which staff were denied if they raised any grievances with management.

Sports Direct employed only 200 directly at the site, with around 1,700 agency workers brought in by Transline, along with a further 1,300 from another agency.

In August 2016, a deal between Sports Direct, trade union Unite and HMRC agreed to backpay £1m to 1,700 Transline agency workers who had not been paid the minimum wage.

At the time, it was reported there was a dispute with rival agency Blue Arrow, who had held the contract two years previously, about who would pay the refunds.

Transline Group has six specialist divisions – Industrial, Driving, Technical, Training, Home Delivery and Permanent.

It was founded in 1989 by joint-CEOs, Paul Beasley and Jon Taylor, and now has more than 100 sites in the UK as well as operations in Ireland, Eastern Europe, Canada, Thailand and Dubai.

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