Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsPay & benefitsEmployment tribunalsEqual pay

Morrisons faces £1bn equal pay claim

by Ashleigh Webber 12 Sep 2018
by Ashleigh Webber 12 Sep 2018 ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

Morrisons has become the latest supermarket to face an equal pay claim from its shop floor workers, which if successful could see it pay out £1bn in compensation.

Law firm Leigh Day is seeking back pay for its predominantly female retail workers, who believe they are paid less than the staff in its distribution centres – who are mainly men – for equal work.

Equal pay

How to carry out an equal pay audit

Asda equal pay claims: What are the implications for similar employers?

The law firm is already taking similar action on behalf of 30,000 shop floor staff at rival supermarkets Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda.

Around 80,000 Morrisons employees are eligible to make a claim. If successful, they could collectively be entitled to more than £1bn in back pay.

Emma Satyamurti, a partner at Leigh Day, said: “We believe that Morrisons, as with the other major supermarkets, has underpaid those working in its stores for a number of years. The big four supermarkets in the UK make vast amounts each year in profits – it is time that they faced up to their legal obligations under equal pay legislation.

“Our clients believe that those working on the shop floor should be paid the same as those in the distribution centres, and a failure to commit to this is not only unfair but unlawful.

“This legal action is being taken forward to ensure that the work done in stores and distribution centres is recognised as being of equal value; not the same work, but work of equal value and that those working on the shop floor should be paid the same as their colleagues in distribution.”

Leigh Day has notified Acas of its intention to lodge the claims, and has requested pay and gender information from Morrisons CEO David Potts.

It has also asked the retailer to confirm whether it has carried out an equal pay audit, which the Equality and Human Rights Commission said is the most effective way of ensuring staff are paid fairly.

A Morrisons spokesperson said: “We are not aware of any court proceedings issued by a third party. We have received a letter asking us a number of questions about our pay policies. Our aim is to pay our colleagues fairly and equally for the job that they do, irrespective of their gender.”

If successful, the case Leigh Day is bringing against Tesco could result in Tesco staff receiving as much as £4bn in back pay – which would make it the largest equal pay challenge in UK history.

Ashleigh Webber
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is editor at OHW+ and part of the Personnel Today editorial team. Prior to joining Personnel Today in 2018, she covered the road transport sector for Commercial Motor and Motor Transport.

previous post
Half of staff have experienced a mental health issue in their current role
next post
Apprenticeships vital to improving prospects for disadvantaged people

2 comments

Avatar
Sir 12 Sep 2018 - 5:37 pm

If you don’t like working in the shop then get a job in the RDC then. Oh, haven’t got a forklift licence, or aren’t prepared to train for one ?
That’s one difference for a start. How long have you got ?

If women choose to enter low / lower paid occupations, that’s their lookout, frankly. I’m sure that women who work in the RDC are paid the same as their male counterparts (the same being true of male colleagues on the checkout (and other retail occupations)).

Women should stop dodging the issue and train to be airline pilots (etc, etc – the list is endless) and stop hiding behind the male job / female job cliché. If you want to be paid as much as a forklift driver, then become one !

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Twice as many men as women hold company...

3 May 2022

Ban salary history questions: Andrew Bazeley talks to...

18 Mar 2022

Ethnicity pay gap reporting will not be mandatory

17 Mar 2022

Most women in UK say their employer is...

8 Mar 2022

IWD: We need to address bias, not women’s...

8 Mar 2022

Huge pay gap for female FTSE 350 financial...

28 Feb 2022

Equal pay: Co-op retail and warehouse roles are...

1 Feb 2022

BNP Paribas to pay £2.1m to banker who...

31 Jan 2022

Campaigners reveal ‘glacial’ pace of change in women’s...

21 Jan 2022

The 10 most important employment law cases in...

8 Dec 2021
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+