The long-running equal pay dispute between Asda and its shop-floor staff is to be considered by the Supreme Court this week.
Some 38,000 Asda shop floor workers, most of whom are women, claim they should be paid the same wages as distribution centre staff, who are mostly men and receive a higher hourly rate.
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The Supreme Court will consider whether consider whether the shop floor staff are entitled to compare their wages to those of distribution staff for equal pay purposes. The hearing, which takes place today and tomorrow (14 July) is the last chance for Asda to argue that the roles are not comparable.
The Court of Appeal, which heard the case last year, believed the shop floor staff are entitled to compare their wages to warehouse workers’ wages, upholding the rulings of the employment tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal.
The outcome of the case will have a significant impact on other similar group action claims being brought by shop floor staff at other major supermarkets, including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Tesco and the Co-op.
It is estimated that the back pay owed to workers could total £8bn if all of the retailers lost their equal pay cases.
Law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the Asda staff, said the case was the largest equal pay claim to ever be brought against an employer in the UK.
Commenting on the case, Adam Pennington, an employment lawyer at Stephensons, said: “This is a highly significant case not only for Asda and the 35,000 workers affected, but also for the private sector as a whole. If the Supreme Court rules in favour of the employees in this case, it will open up the possibility of claims against any other employer where there is a discrepancy between the rates of pay in the depot and those found in store.
“In the last few months alone we’ve been reminded how important those working in our supermarkets really are. The hope from these workers will be that the Supreme Court finds their hard work is of equal value to those colleagues in the depot and that steps are taken to level out an uneven shop floor when it comes to wages.”
Asda said in a statement: “We welcome the opportunity to bring the equal value case to the Supreme Court. The case is extremely complex and without precedent in the private sector, so it is vital the issues are given the legal scrutiny they deserve.
“Whilst we respect the rights of retail workers to bring this case, we fundamentally disagree with its premise and will continue to make our arguments clear.
“Our hourly rates of pay in stores are the same for male and female colleagues and this is equally true in our distribution centres. Retail and distribution are two different industry sectors and we pay colleagues the market rates for these sectors.”
I work in a busy store my job entails a lot of heavy lifting of stock use of pallet trucks and also the added stress off dealing with customers it’s a very stressful environment and deserves the same pay as distribution after all without staff in store filling the shelves the customer couldn’t purchase.
I wonder, how far do you travel to the store? Surely the distribution center will be far further away? Would you want to travel to that site? It’ll be the same for the DC workers on average.
They’ll have higher travel to work costs. Perhaps for this reason among others it is people are not as keen to work at the DC and consequently, the pay rates are better.
Its unlikely Asda are intentionally paying over the odds, if they only needed to pay store rates at the DC in order to fill the roles then, that is what they’d do.
What rubbish. It’s simply saying that the work of the shop workers in store is of as equal value to ASDA as depot workers. Both deal with warehouses except lets be honest shop workers have to deal with the general public.
In the distribution center they put goods onto pallets to go to the supermarket. And we take them off the pallets in store. To put onto shelves. I do believe I do the same job as they do. So why shouldn’t I be paid the same.
My daughter works in store and in the warehouse pulling cages into and around the store before emptying contents and filling shelves so what is the difference between loading these heavy cages on or off transport?I would say the hardest job is unloading and moving through store dodging customers and being under pressure to get them emptied so how can Asda or owners Walmart deny equal pay for this but I suppose they will have better and more expensive lawyers to squirm out of their responsibility.
We just do the riles in reverse.. us the added extra of dealing with customers. Exactly the same roles. If anything we should get paid more for the added stress of dealing with customers
Distribution staff load the lorries, shop staff unload the lorries, same job in reverse. I deliver shopping from the store, this involves loading and unloading vehicles (without assistance) as well as driving the loads to customers using my personal driving license. I am paid as a store employee but I believe the work l do is worth the wage that is earned in the distribution centre.
Mark, shop staff also load lorries: SALVAGE
and regarding off-loading, some shops have uneven yard floor, shaken loads in lorries are sometime stricky to offload. I worked 8 years in depot, full time picking, and actually, it’s a more comfortable job, than back-door, dragging and replenishing shelves. And then you have baling.
And it’s not just the customers, but that for stores managers it’s not possible to plan down to the detail that warehouses routinely can and do. Something different is whether a particular manager is good, bad or lazy and should plan more.
The distance-to-work point made above is not a reason to give more money to workers, because warehouses are not placed in the middle of the ocean, or up corengal valley, in a way to speak.
There are roads, regular buses, and trains to reach UK depots. Retailers place depots on centered map spots where many stores can be reached with similar costs: What would be the cost to place a depot on John O’Groat’s tip?
Why don’t you apply to the warehouse jobs?
What has it go to do with the physical effort involved in the job? Different jobs have different pay structures. Equal pay was brought in to make sure all sexes got the same rate for the same job not for saying similar jobs should attract the same pay. Is it true that no women work in distribution centres and no men work in the shops?