Sports Direct CEO defends zero-hour contracts

The Chief Executive Officer at Sports Direct has continued to defend zero-hour contracts, despite criticism of the practise.

The sports retailer has been denounced by several organisations, and, at one point, by the former Labour leader Ed Miliband. Last year, he said: “These Victorian practices - the epidemic of zero-hours contracts that we see at Sports Direct - have no place in the 21st century.”

Now, Sports Direct’s CEO, Dave Forsey, has defended the practise in an interview with Retail Week. He said: “It’s very flexible and, contrary to what is reported, it does work very well for the vast majority of our casual staff as well as it does for the company [sic].”

The publication went on to ask the CEO if the company would raise the salaries within the company to the National Living Wage. Forsey replied that the company would continue to review its policies, and would see what the government’s legal framework looks like.