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Legal challenge against zero hours contracts

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Zero hours contracts are facing a legal challenge, after a part-time worker with SportsDirect.com decided to take her case to an employment tribunal. The company is part of the Sports Direct Group whose revenues are reported to have increased by 20.9 per cent to £2.19bn this year. It is the UK's largest sporting retailer, employing around 23,000 employees. Of these, 20,000 are part-time 'casual' sales assistants on zero hours contracts. Last month the Sports Direct group announced that it was awarding its staff an average of 12,000 shares each this month. But part-time staff do not qualify for this Bonus Share Scheme. They are also denied paid annual leave, sick pay and other bonuses available to full-time staff. Zahera Gabriel-Abraham, 30, has brought the legal challenge to the second-class treatment of part-timers, funded by donations from the campaign group 38 Degrees. She started working at the Croydon SportsDirect.com store in October 2012 as a part-time sales assistant. She believes that regardless of the 'casual' label the reality of her working arrangements entitled her to be treated no less favourably than the retailer's full-time staff. Elizabeth George, the barrister in the employment team of law firm Leigh Day who is acting for Ms Gabriel-Abraham, said: 'There was no practical difference between the obligations put on my client by the company and those placed on full-time staff.' She added: 'The 'casual' part-time employees in this case are employees in the conventional sense and denying them their paid holidays, sick pay and bonuses is unlawful.'

Leigh Day news release.

38 Degrees blog.

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