JD Sports under fire as report reveals high number of ambulance dispatches to warehouse

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jan 30, 2017

JD Sport’s Rochdale warehouse is hitting the headlines again after an investigation led by a British newspaper found that at least 140 workers have been taken to hospital in the last four years following incidents at the site.

Ambulances have been dispatched to the warehouse at least 166 times in the past four years, and 140 of those incidents lead to a trip to the hospital, reported The Guardian on Sunday.

The documents obtained by the newspaper show that 21 ambulances were dispatched in 2013, and 60 in 2014. The number dropped to 44 in 2015 and 41 last year.

About 1,500 people work at the warehouse, which has been previously criticised for poor working conditions following an undercover TV investigation by Channel 4 News. JD Sports denied Channel 4’s claims that workers were threatened with being sacked just for sitting down, and announced an investigation into its warehouse conditions at the end of last year.

A spokesperson told the Guardian that not all ambulance dispatches were related to workplace incidents, and that health and safety is are “high priority” for the company.

“The data presented clearly states that, despite the considerable expansion of operations at Kingsway and the considerably increased number of staff engaged, the number of ambulances called has decreased since 2014”, commented the spokesperson, adding that the Kingsway facility has been awarded four stars for occupational health and safety compliance from the British Safety Council.

“We employ a full-time health and safety manager and currently have 60 first aiders at Kingsway, almost double the recommended number of 32, and all employees have a full health and safety briefing in their half-day induction before entering the workplace.”

Employees are provided with regular training on health and safety matters, and a committee monitors all reported accidents and incidents and takes preventive action to avoid recurrences, said the spokesperson.