He accused them of “showboating”, adding: “It’s probably your fault that we’re in this mess”.
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Ashley later told reporters he was sorry for what had happened. “But I don’t want the headline “excuses”, I want the headline “sorry”.
Meanwhile, the football boss surprised onlookers when he pulled out a big wad of £50 notes when he emptied his pockets to go through a scanning machine at the company’s Shirebrook warehouse.
“We therefore call on Sports Direct to reconsider its proposal to only move 10 agency workers a month on to direct, permanent contracts”.
Having floated in 2007, the firm grew to a market valuation of 5.5 billion pounds in 2014. The review came after the Guardian exposed how temporary workers were effectively receiving hourly rates of pay below the minimum wage.
The report also commits to the offer of guaranteed hours instead of “zero hours” to more than 18,000 of the firm’s casual retail staff, while the group’s HR function is being strengthened with Sports Direct’s HR team in Shirebrook bolstered by the appointment of a full-time nurse and welfare officer.
The review undertaken by its legal adviser RPC followed publication of a report by lawmakers in July which said the company treated workers at Shirebrook “as commodities rather than human beings”.
Sports Direct will speak with shareholders to obtain their views, it said.
Standard Life Investments, which holds 34 million shares on behalf of investors, opposed Sports Direct’s remuneration report and the reappointment of all non-executive directors at the AGM.
The Investor Forum, consisting of influential investors holding assets worth more than £14 trillion, has urged Sports Direct to “undertake a wide-reaching independent review of the entire governance practices at the company”.
However, that is not going to satisfy investors, one of whom – Legal & General Investment Management – has already insisted Mr Hellawell should step down immediately.
Hours before its AGM, Sports Direct said Keith Hellawell – perhaps best-known as a former government drugs’ tsar and chief constable of West Yorkshire – had received the backing of the board to put things right.
Sports Direct said he had been asked by the board to continue in the role.
‘I have confirmed today that should I not receive the support of a majority of our independent shareholders at next year’s AGM, I will step down at that time with immediate effect’.
The Institute of Directors (IoD) has also called for an overhaul of the way the firm is run.
The company added “in response to repeated speculation” that Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley had no intention of taking the company private.
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It said in a trading update that forecast full-year earnings in the region of £300 million, compared with £381.4 million last year and a consensus estimate of £320 million, according to broker RBC Capital.
