Workers also pay between 45p and £2.45 a week for insurance services.
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He admitted that workers had been paid below minimum wage and said the problem of not awarding overtime for late clocking off hadn’t been addressed.
And there was the moment he finally admitted he wasn’t Santa Clause.
The committee has a range options to put pressure on Mr Ashley if he fails to attend a meeting.
Ashley, who is deputy chairman of Sports Direct and holds 55% of its equity, has said “media intrusion” has hurt the company’s results.
“That does not show an unhappy workforce”, he said.
Asked by a committee member why more staff couldn’t be directly employed, Mr Ashley claimed that to do so would have been impossible given the growth rate of the firm.
Between the start of 2013 and April 19 this year, 110 ambulances were called to the Shirebrook warehouse.
Mr Ashley also appeared to agree to an independent review of his company’s corporate governance structure.
But he claimed some of the call-outs were unnecessary because staff could be calling them for minor ailments.
A steady stream of ambulances had been called to the warehouse in recent years in response to employee emergencies, including life-threatening conditions such as strokes, convulsions and breathing difficulties.
They receive the strikes against their record for infringements such as taking too long in the toilet, chatting too much at work, or calling in sick.
I don’t think I’m Santa Claus.
The entrepreneur was asked by the committee if he thinks Sir Philip Green, who is due to go before MPs next week after selling BHS for £1 ahead of its failure, had done anything wrong and whether he had been interested in buying BHS. And that’s not just waffly stuff. “I’m not saying I’ll make the world wonderful”, he added when speaking of his plans to turn around the firm’s employment relations.
I see you’re wearing a Newcastle United tie? Adding that he would not want to “commit to 20 things at once”.
“I can only do my best and my best might no be good enough”, he said.
On reflection of all the issues discussed, Ashley stated to the committee that the business has “definitely outgrown me”.
It’s been positive so far, stop making it negative.
“It’s outrageous that while billionaire Mike Ashley talks of defending Sports Direct’s “good name”, he reigns over an empire built on low pay, insecure zero-hour contracts and exploitation”.
Having answered a wide range of questions during a hearing which lasted around two hours, at the close of the session Ashley said he “100%” wanted to acquire BHS, the department store retailer which collapsed into administration last week with the loss of 11,000 jobs.
“No idea”, replied Mr Ashley.
These include going to the floor of the House with a special report on Mr Ashley, which would be debated before issuing him with another summons, but with the weight of the entire parliament behind it.
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He was advised by his PR guru to say no comment. “One hundred per cent”.
