Next shop workers have won their six-year battle for equal pay

The store staff who brought the claim to law firm Leigh Day will now be entitled to compensation from back pay going back up to six years as the claims were first filed in 2018.

Claimants will see their basic hourly pay terms automatically equalised with warehouse staff in their existing contracts. The win also extends to store staff being paid rest breaks and equal Sunday, night and overtime premiums in line with the warehouse staff.

Compensation will be assessed by the Employment Tribunal, and only those who have brought the claims will have access to compensation for lost pay and equalised contracts.

At the hearing in May, Next argued that market forces were the reason for the pay difference, telling the tribunal that the market rate for a warehouse worker is more than a sales assistant, with the gender of staff irrelevant.

The tribunal rejected this, stating that market rates is not a “lawful defence” to an equal pay claim and that there has to be something more to justify the inequality.

Leigh Day is still submitting claims for sales staff who were not among the original 3,500 involved in the legal battle, and the number of claims is expected to rise following the ruling.

The total amount that will be payable by Next is estimated to be more than £30m.

Leigh Day also represents 112,000 grocery store staff across Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the Co-op who are all bringing similar equal pay claims, but the firm said each case will be decided on its own “particular facts”.

Leigh Day partner and barrister Elizabeth George said the claimants have achieved something “hugely significant”.

“This is exactly the type of pay discrimination that the equal pay legislation was intended to address,” George said.

“When you have female dominated jobs being paid less than male dominated jobs and the work is equal, employers cannot pay women less simply by pointing to the market and saying it’s the going rate for the jobs. 

“The Employment Tribunal has confirmed employers must go further to justify paying the different rates. They rightly found that Next could have afforded to pay a higher rate but chose not to and that the reason for that was purely financial.”

In a statement sent to Retail Week, Next said: “The Employment Tribunal has now handed down judgment in respect of the equal pay claim brought by Next retail store workers seeking the same pay, terms and conditions as Next warehouse employees.

“The tribunal rejected the majority of the claims made by the claimants, in particular all claims of direct discrimination, and all aspects of the claims made in respect of bonus pay. The tribunal expressed serious criticisms of the claimants’ expert evidence, and overwhelmingly accepted the evidence of Next’s expert and fact witnesses.

“In respect of the specific terms in which the claim succeeded, it is our intention to appeal. This is the first equal pay group action in the private sector to reach a decision at tribunal level and raises a number of important points of legal principle.”