Company closed stores after backlash against plan to stay open – but salaried staff say they are still forced to travel to work
The Sports Direct chain is forcing salaried staff to travel into work as usual – in spite of a u-turn today to close its stores after initially planning to stay open in spite of lock-down instructions.
The government has told workers to stay home if possible, to reduce crowding and social interactions and the rate of new infections. But the company has told salaried store managers that they have to go to work if they want to get paid.
One manager told the SKWAWKBOX
Hourly-paid staff don’t have to go to work, but we’ve been told that we have to go in from 8am to 6pm each day. So we have to travel to work during rush hours as usual, with the risk of getting infected or spreading it to others.
This is putting us and our families in danger – and other people too. It’s shocking.
Staff are also concerned that the company’s mixed approach to staff attendance may prevent those who are not working from being eligible for support for ‘furloughed’ workers wrung from the government by Labour and the unions.
Sports Direct was contacted for comment but did not respond. The company only provides an email address for media enquiries.
Matt Hancock told MPs today that fines would be levied on companies contravening the lock-down rules.
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Sports Direct denies allegations of profiteering made by its own staff
Sports Direct instructed managers to make significant price increases to a number of lines.
ITV News has seen a copy of Price Changes Report that was sent out to around 600 Sports Direct shops, ordering staff to hike the prices of a range goods in time for Tuesday morning.
From Twitter:
Sarah Retweeted
@Ian_Fraser
UK banks are responding to the coronavirus crisis by:
jacking up the cost of personal loans
quadrupling interest rates on overdrafts from 9.99% to nearly 40%
failing to pass on BoE interest rate cuts to mortgage borrowers
—————————————————————————————-
And there was I, innocently thinking that in return for us paying off their cocaine-fuelled $trillions of gambling debts in 2010 – banks might help us out with cheap loans for food now. Not.
It’s not just bankers to blame – it’s ALL the rich.
They ALL demand ever-increasing returns from the cash they lend, or “invest.”
“Usurer” is another name for those who extract unfair returns from borrowers.
Like any virus, greed has to be eradicated to prevent it infecting others.
You’d think the rich would be smart enough to figure it out for themselves – refuse to save someone’s family when you could easily have done so and you put your own family at risk of survivors driven mad by grief taking revenge.
Who won’t say, “Serves them fucking right?”
We really need Ken, Chris, George, now. People who can be heard when they speak, especially George Galloway. Clear and robust, on the ball knowledgable … PREPARED. No bumpf and waffle from George. Just heard Gardner on Talkradio with his eye gouging fluffy unfocused voice and whispering fluff. Cannot bear to hear him. I’m sorry it sounds harsh but i’v long suspected Gardner is the cause of Jeremy not dumping his unfocused tone in interviews. When Jeremy is on the stump, he is ELECTRIC➕➕➕ It’s only a suspicion but all the “constructive ambiguity” cr** sounds like just the type of fluff that comes from the whispering Gardner.. Where’s George Galloway when we need him❓ Ken Loach❓ Chris Williamson, you are DESPERATELY missed on the radio speaking boldly and clearly. It may be no comfort, but you were picked off … you were in the cross hairs of an unrepresentative, unelected, self-appointed despicable few BECAUSE they KNOW you are EXCELLENT in decent substance and BRILLIANT at defending True Labour. 🌹🌹🌹
Signpost, yes, George Galloway tore lumps out of the US Senate in ’06 or whenever – and it was an absolute joy – but Gardner’s no slouch either and I think he might be quicker on his feet than George.
I see him as the epitome of “speak quietly but carry a big stick.”
Unfailingly polite, he humiliates interviewers with a total understanding of his brief.
When they think they have a ‘gotcha’ he not only explains with unassailable logic why they’re mistaken – he anticipates and answers their editors’ countering questions while they’re still thinking them through – and then the questions they would have asked if they were about 50 IQ points smarter.
Don’t let the quiet manner fool you.
In a different church and century he could have been an Inquisitor or a Walsingham.
If I was sure whose side he was on I’d demand he be Leader 🙂
McNiv, just shows, i agree with Maria, the “church” is too “broad” but we do need people to give our message in different voices. If u find Gardner effective, and others do, then brilliant. Just typing his name makes me feel sick… squeezed in my chest. I find his delivery far too slow, turgid and the voice so unfocused. Really can’t endure hearing his voice and slow delivery. Do u know what David Cameron’s mouth looks like❓ …a chicken’s a*** … Gardner always sounds as if speaking out of David Cameron’s mouth. But, i take your point.🌹🌹🌹
LONDON (Reuters) – Some British health workers fighting the coronavirus outbreak on the ground still feel inadequately protected, the head of the National Health Service Confederation a lobby group which represents swathes of the health service.
“There are still people on the ground who feel inadequately protected,” Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation