UK retail giants could face an £8bn compensation payout if a long-running equal pay dispute involving 60,000 Asda workers rules in favour of female shopfloor staff. The equality row started in 2008 at a Manchester store of the supermarket giants, and has this week reached a key stage which could pave the way for a landmark ruling and a significant industry payout.
Ison Harrison’s employment law experts were watching on intensely this week, as a long-awaited employment tribunal hearing started on Monday 9th September to decide whether the mainly female shop worker roles at Asda were of equal value to those of predominantly male warehouse workers. The warehouse workers are currently paid up to £3.79 per hour more than their female colleagues.
The hearing is expected to last three months, and so a ruling is not anticipated until early 2025, but major retail names are braced for the fallout, and what is being estimated as a potential £8bn payout. Fashion and homeware giant Next is currently embroiled in a number of similar equal pay disputes, and the Asda dispute alone could cost the supermarket chain £1.2bn in back-pay and compensation claims.
An increase in equal pay disputes
Unequal pay claims have gathered pace in recent years following successful claims by female cleaners and dinner ladies comparing their jobs to male refuse collectors and street cleaners. Now, the GMB Union – who have around 20,000 members involved in the Asda dispute – are confident of a positive ruling in favour of their female members, having supported them through various successful hearings and appeals to date. Some of GMB’s members held a protest about the equal pay dispute at an Asda store in Kettering in July.
Another positive result in this hearing would then require Asda’s majority owners, TDR Capital, to begin settlement talks with GMB’s members and the other successful claimants, and also to resolve what could only be concluded as sex discrimination inherent in its pay structure.
The hearing started this week is based around a supreme court ruling from 2021, which ruled that Asda’s workers could compare the value of their work to those in the warehouse and distribution centres of the same organisation. This current hearing is essentially about whether the employment tribunal agrees with that ruling and that equal valuation.
Far-reaching implications of employment law dispute
Our head of employment law Yunus Lunat commented:
“This is a fascinating dispute, and one with far-reaching implications. It seems clear how Asda value those in-store roles in comparison with the better paid warehouse and distribution jobs, and the tribunal has to decide whether it agrees with that valuation. The expectation is that it won’t. The major argument of the claimants is that the store jobs involve essential customer service skills and responsibilities, while the warehouse roles are vital in their own way, but are ‘behind-the-scenes’ and therefore don’t represent Asda in the same public-facing way. If the hearing agrees with the store workers, Asda will then have to assess whether there are other reasons why those two job roles are paid differently, i.e. one that isn’t based merely on gender.”
At Ison Harrison we have a team of skilled and experienced employment law solicitors who are able to support claimants throughout what can be stressful and challenging times. If you are facing discriminatory treatment in any way at work, then contact our employment law team at Ison Harrison today.
