Ashley admits Sports Direct paid less than Minimum Wage

Mike Ashley has admitted that staff at his Shirebrook firm have been paid less than the National Minimum Wage on occasion – and that the company might have outgrown his ability to manage it.

Speaking  before the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee looking at working practices at Sports Direct, Ashley said that bottlenecks at the firm’s security checks at the warehouse in Shirebrook had, on one occasion he’d witnessed himself, been responsible for delaying staff on site – time which they weren’t being paid for.

Ashley said: “We’ve now addressed this, but I’m not there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We had ten times more people trying to get out of Unit A than we should have, but we’ve now got Unit C and D and there should be no more reasons for the bottlenecks to occur.”

In an appearance in which he appeared to charm the committee (and said that MPs were welcome to the Shirebrook warehouse at any time, day or night), Ashley said that implemented a review of working practices at the plant, and that it was “an ongoing process with no end”.

He also admitted that the company had now grown so big that it might have completely outgrown his ability to manage its day-to-day running.

When MPs challenged that maybe the review would be better undertaken by an independent body, Ashley said: “I thought it was better that I did it. I’ve touched most parts of the Shirebrook operation now. I know it’s not 100% perfect, but I can only do my best.”