Off Topic Cleaning ladies with £80k bonuses, helicopters and more from Chairman Mike

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mike-ashley-defends-flying-work-8874898

Mike Ashley has defended flying to work by HELICOPTER - just as his firm launches an independent probe into working conditions.

Sports Direct announced today a "360-degree review of working practices and corporate governance" will be led by a third party instead of its lawyers, RPC.

The clothes giant said it made the change after shareholders raised "concerns" about warehouse conditions MPs branded "Victorian".

Minutes later, founder and self-confessed "PR nightmare" Mr Ashley topped up the statement by chatting about his own travel habits.

Mike Ashley turns up to Sports Direct meeting about zero-hour contracts - with MASSIVE wad of £50 notes
He claimed using a helicopter was "real" and justified despite the fact some workers are on the minimum wage.

The millionaire Newcastle FC owner also insisted others benefited in the firm, including a "cleaning lady" who was paid an £80,000 bonus.

He told BBC Breakfast: "I do fly to work by helicopter, it's a reality. So when people say 'Oh be real', that's how I travel.

please log in to view this image

Mike Ashley said there was no contradiction between flying and paying minimum wage
"Sports Direct want to do a load more international business. You say ok guys, I don't get paid a salary, but I do like to go by plane and I do like to go by private plane because it saves a lot of time and it's very efficient.
"So at Sports Direct I'll have a plane come in. And people will say 'how can you have a plane when your workers are on minimum wage?'

"I said 'but I don't set the minimum wage'.

"If the minimum wage would be the living wage, then the Government who set the rules should set it at the living wage.

"That's as I look at it."

please log in to view this image

Sports Direct will hand its probe into working practices to a third party
Mr Ashley put the poor practices discovered at the business down to a "rotten apple in the barrel" and said there are a lot of good things about the firm.

He said: "I can tell you in the last five years Sports Direct will have paid out over £200million in bonuses.
"So I can tell you the cleaning lady got an £80,000 bonus on top of her normal pay. Nobody in the UK has done that.

"What we've got to do is focus on getting the bits we've got wrong, to the extreme highs of the bits we've got right.

"And paying out that kind of money doesn't mean you're allowed to get these bits wrong, where clearly I've taken my eye off the ball.

"I've said sorry, I've said I'm going to fix it, and I will."

please log in to view this image

Mr Ashley admitted he was a "PR nightmare" after emptying a wad of £50 notes
Describing himself as a bit of a "PR nightmare", he referred to the moment he pulled out a wad of £50 notes during a security check at his firm's Shirebrook warehouse.

He said: "The one thing people didn't say to me was 'Mike, have you checked how much money you've got in your pocket?'

"And of course nobody thought to ask me whether or not I had genuinely been to the casino a few days earlier."

Sports Direct originally announced there would be a probe by its own lawyers into working practices on September 6.

Its board switched to a third party today after discussions with the influential Investor Forum, whose combined assets are worth more than £14trillion.

please log in to view this image

MP Iain Wright warned evidence had pointed to conditions like a "Victorian workhouse"
Independent shareholders also rebelled at the retailer's AGM, with 53% opposing the re-election of chairman Keith Hellawell.

Sports Direct previously announced it would end zero-hour contracts for warehouse staff after Iain Wright, chairman of the business select committee, said: "The evidence we heard points to a business whose working practices are closer to that of a Victorian workhouse than that of a modern, reputable High Street retailer."

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said today: "At last Mike Ashley and his board have grasped that they need to take some very serious steps to restore shareholder, consumer and worker confidence in their employment practices.

“An independent review is a vital component of this company truly getting to grips with its many and serious employment problems.

“We are pleased that the company has now seen sense."

Jon Trickett MP, Labour’s shadow business secretary, said the review was a "step in the right direction towards ridding the company of its exploitative practices once and for all."

 

I worked for Britannia Hotels back in the 80's when they were first building their empire, Alex Langsam who still owns the company and his then business partner Mike Morton make Ashley look like a cuddly teddy bear.

 

Fat Mike's store count has shot up rapidly... and with it.... his staff roster. Some ignore the jobs he's created to focus on just one or two issues. I know a guy who is on zero hours as a contract with his specific employer and he loves it. He can take time off when he wants as it works both ways.

 

They work for some and allow a more flexible working arrangement but there are employers who exploit them, I have used them as an employer in hotels and in general they fit for people who have benefits and need flexible arrangement say with childcare or students studying.

 

Who would seriously expect a billionaire to not travel by private plane or helicopter if he or she preferred to? Why do people think a billionaire wouldn't have a big wad of cash? He's a billionaire FFS.

 

Was thinking the same. He's got a **** tonne of money, of course he's going to travel by private jet or helicopter FFS. What do they want him to do, get the local bus to the office or something?

Find linking him arriving in helicopter with the fact some of the staff are on minimum wage a bit pathetic. Lots of people are on minimum wage.. paying people minimum wage isn't the problem of the company, as he says, the government set that rate so companies pay it. What do they want them to do?

No one forces people to take on zro hour contracts and as many people say, it suits them perfectly, but press never seem to report that.

Saying all that, some of the reports from SD about strikes for going to toilet and **** is ridiculous.

 

Thought he came across ok ... Like many have said he is a billionaire so going to work in a helicopter is reality.

 

Have money, flaunt it.

Ffs he is a BILLIONAIRE. He's hardly gonna sit in traffic jams in a rusty old Nissan Micra.

I also dont expect he lives in a bedsit eating pot noodles.