15th Dec 2015 06:36
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sports Direct International PLC faced criticism on Monday, according to The Guardian, as both MPs and investors turned on the company following the newspaper's report last week which accused the company of effectively paying its temporary warehouse workers less than the UK minimum wage.
Chuka Umunna, the former shadow business minister, said the sports clothing and equipment retailer was a "bad advert for British business" and said it had a "culture of fear in the workplace that we would not wish to see repeated elsewhere", according to the newspaper.
At the same time, The Guardian said, Crispin Odey, the prominent hedge fund manager and a leading investor in Sports Direct, changed his tune on Mike Ashley, Sports Direct's founder and executive deputy chairman.
Odey, who once described Ashley as a "genius", said he was "difficult to house train" and said the authority he appears to hold over the company's other directors looks "dangerous", the newspaper reported.
It said HM Revenue & Customs, the UK's tax authority, is now facing increasing pressure to launch an inquiry into the allegations of paying effectively less than the minimum wage, made in a Guardian report last week.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/14/sports-direct-crisis-grows-as-mps-and-investors-question-business
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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