LOW-PAY culture and income inequality have become endemic for workers in 21st-century Britain.

The revelations this week of the lengths to which Sports Direct will go to create a hostile working environment that intimidates, immiserates and cajoles its workers will resonate with millions of workers across the country.

The systematic rolling back of basic employment rights and the continued assault on unions has created a culture at work which is positively poisonous.

It’s no surprise that we live in a country where 24 million working days are lost every year as a result of work-related illnesses.

The lengths to which Sports Direct has gone to avoid paying even the current paltry national minimum wage is the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

This is from the company that makes the lowest contribution to staff pensions of any other in the FTSE 100.

The sportswear retailer paid an average of just £82 into its employees’ pension scheme last year, well below the average of £2,920 for the FTSE 100 as a whole.

More than three-quarters of Sports Direct’s 24,000 employees are forced to work on zero-hours contracts.

The announcement of an internal probe into its working practices will no doubt give immense confidence to its workers given its sterling record as an employer. 

This is a company whose entire business approach and profits — which rose by 15 per cent last year to £240 million — is based on the rapacious exploitation of its workforce.

The irony is that Mike Ashley has been trotted out by the right as a paragon of British business ethics and inventiveness while accumulating his estimated personal wealth of more than £3.69 billion.

The commitment by Labour MPs to press for a full investigation by the HM Revenue and Customs is welcome but far from a solution. HMRC’s ability to fully investigate these claims is seriously under threat.

Civil Service union PCS estimates that more than 11,000 posts have been cut since 2010 and even more are slated to go.

While former senior HMRC directors like Phil Hodkinson, John Spence and Stephen Green can rely on the revolving door between the HMRC and businesses looking for tax experts to help them exploit loopholes, workers who are shouldered with the burden of investigating these claims have no such option.

The 137 local offices of the HMRC are slated for closure over the next decade with the creation of new regional super-hub offices, following the pattern of similar drawn out tactics of cuts to the Civil Service in other departments.

The government’s sage advice for those workers who suspect their employer might not be paying them the minimum wage is to raise it with their exploiter first.

It’s strangely lacking in any mention of the ability to join or contact a union, which are designed to represent them.

The real human tragedy here is that despite the vitriol being rightly directed at Sports Direct and the collective hand-wringing in some of the liberal press, their abhorrent practices are indicative of the symptom not the cause.

Systemic low pay, insecure work and exploitative hours and conditions have become so deeply entrenched for an entire generation of workers — particularly those in the retail and leisure sectors — that we need to revolutionise the entire nature of employment in Britain.

Building upon successful high-profile union-led campaigns like Unite’s fair tips for waiting staff, the GMB’s actions on behalf of Uber drivers and broad campaigns like the Living Wage Foundation are vital to tackling this.

But as a movement we have to do a lot more to bring in these predominantly young workers. This is a task for the entire labour movement not just individual unions that have recognition agreements.

Trades councils in particular need to rediscover their role as active, militant and vibrant centres of working-class organisation which don’t just bring together existing activists but organise, educate and politicise these workers.