Law firm says employees had ‘contractual right’ to be part of scheme
A law firm representing 250 former and current Sports Direct staff is preparing to bring legal action against the retailer claiming employees were barred from a multimillion-pound bonus scheme because they were on zero hours contracts.
Leigh Day said that the part-time staff, who worked at the sportswear company between April 2008 and August 2013 were excluded from a bonus scheme breaching their employment contract.
In 2013 the bonus scheme paid out around £160m worth of shares to 2,000 permanent workers, according to newspaper reports.
Elizabeth George, a barrister at Leigh Day, told the Guardian: "These are the staff whose hard work over many years has brought about the record profits that funded the bonus awards in the first place. It's plainly unfair that they should have missed out.
"We believe that they had a contractual right to the bonus because regardless of the zero-hours label that the company has given their contracts, they were all permanent employees of the company for the necessary number of years."
Sports Direct is already facing legal action for its use of zero hours contracts, which do not guarantee a minimum number of working hours a week. The law firm said that the number of claimants could amount to thousands after it received enquiries from other Sports Direct staff making complaints.
Leigh Day has launched a separate legal claim against the use of zero hours contracts by Sports Direct on behalf of Zahera Gabriel-Abraham, a former part-time sales assistant employed on a zero hours contract. Her employment tribunal case, due to be heard in November, challenges the legality of the company’s treatment of its part-time workforce claiming that there was no practical difference between the obligations put on those placed on zero hours contracts and full-time staff.
People Management contacted Sports Direct about its bonus scheme in relation to zero hours contracted staff but a spokesperson declined to comment.