Breakfast briefing: Sports Direct and British high street brands

Sports Direct minimum wage investigation could widen

The investigation into Sports Direct’s failure to pay national minimum wage to its warehouse workers is believed to have widened to include the sportswear chain’s 13,000 retail workers, the Guardian reported.

The investigators from HM Revenue & Customs are scrutinising whether Sports Direct retail staff and nearly 3,000 warehouse workers have been paid less than the legal minimum.

The news comes after Sports Direct’s founder, Mike Ashley, confessed in a parliamentary inquiry that the company had broken the law by failing to pay warehouse staff their minimum wage.

British high street retailers to ban use of feathers in their collections

British high street brands including Topshop, Whistles, Warehouse, Primark and Oasis have banned down feathers in their collections following an expose by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), Vogue reported.

Recently, Peta unveiled a video in May showing birds, while still alive, being aggressively plucked of their feathers in China, despite those companies having connections to retail suppliers that are certified by the Responsible Down Standard, which prohibits live plucking of geese.