In four years 140 have been taken to hospital from the JD Sports warehouse

Photo: Google, DigitalGlobe

JD Sports, Michael Faraday Avenue, Kingsway

The JD Sports warehouse on Kingsway Business Park is in the news again as a Freedom of Information response, shared by the requester with Rochdale Online, reveals that in four years 140 people have been taken to hospital after incidents at the warehouse.

The revelation follows a Channel 4 documentary about ‘shocking’ conditions at the JD Sports warehouse broadcast in December.

Rochdale Online reported on criticism of JD Sports and Assist Recruitment by employees as long ago as 2013:

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/81564/jd-sports-criticised-by-former-employees

And again in 2014:

http://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/84632/jd-sports-warehouse-and-assist-recruitment-criticised-again-by-former-workers

A spokesperson for JD Sports said: “Health and safety is a high priority and JD have invested heavily in, and are proud of, health and safety at the Kingsway facility, evidenced by our four star for occupational health and safety compliance from the British Safety Council. This includes an independent assessment of our policies, training, performance and working practices and was awarded in May 2016.

“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.

“There are up to 1,500 employees on site daily and the number of incidents where an ambulance is called in a year is, therefore, proportionally very low. It must also be emphasised that not all ambulance call-outs will be related to workplace incidents, and that many may relate to an employee falling ill or something unrelated to the work environment, therefore, call-outs related to incidents at work are only a proportion of the numbers quoted.

“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.

“They are provided with regular updates and training on health and safety matters. In addition, all line managers have mandatory enhanced health and safety training and some have undertaken the Nebosh qualification. Our health and safety committee monitors all reported accidents and incidents and takes appropriate, preventative action to try to avoid any recurrence.”