6th Jun 2016 07:56
LONDON (Alliance News) - Sports Direct International PLC founder Mike Ashley has decided he will appear before MPs to defend his company, reversing a decision first announced on Friday.
On Friday, Ashley told the Business, Innovation & Skills Committee he would not attend the hearing on Tuesday, having claimed his legal representation would not be available to join him.
This prompted Iain Wright, chair of the BIS committee, to question whether Ashley had anything to be "frightened of". Wright also criticised Ashley's decision to pull out of the hearing given he had been given three months' notice of the appointment.
But over the weekend, Ashley said he would appear in order to defend his "good name", adding he had decided a "lengthy legal battle would be no benefit to either of us".
MPs want to question Ashley over working conditions at the company's Shirebrook warehouse in Derbyshire. In December, The Guardian published an undercover investigation into the centre which likened working at Shirebrook to "day at the gulag".
Ashley then said he would oversee a review into worker conditions at the company, which had previously come under fire for its use of zero-hours contracts, before the company said on New Year's Eve it would pay staff above the UK's new National Living Wage.
Sports Direct shares were down 0.1% at 360.00 pence Monday.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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