Sports Direct is set to pay £1 million in back wages to thousands of its warehouse workers after the company admitted to paying below the national living wage. The sports retailer and its employment agencies are also facing fines of up to £2 million for underpaying workers for four years, reports The Guardian.

Among the workers who will receive a payout, approximately 1,700 staff from Transline, one of the employment agencies used by Sports Direct to provide workers, are thought to be in line for a payout.

Transline, along with employment agency The Best Connection, supply more than 3,000 agency workers for Sports Direct in its Shirebrook warehouse. Many of the workers will receive up to £1,000 each in back pay dated from 2012.

Both agencies are also facing fines of up to £2 million from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Steve Turner, the assistant general secretary of the Unite union, commented: "Investors and customers alike should not be fooled into thinking that everything is now rosy at Sports Direct’s Shirebrook warehouse. Transline, one of the employment agencies involved, is disgracefully still trying to short-change workers by seeking to duck its responsibilities."

"Deep-seated problems still remain regarding the use of agency workers with the behaviour of both Transline and The Best Connection further jeopardising Sports Direct’s battered reputation."

The union also said about 1,700 Transline agency workers at the Derbyshire site may only initially receive half the back-pay they are owed because of the firm's refusal to refund unpaid wages from when it took over from Blue Arrow in 2014.

A Transline spokesman said: "We are making all payments required in full compliance with HMRC.

Workers directly employed by Sports Direct and the Best Connection agency are expected to start receiving back-pay in full towards the end of August.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has spoken out about the Sports Direct scandal and will launch a ‘workplace 2020 review’ to prevent such mistreatment of staff in the future, according to Chronicle Live.