Hauliers should review the pay rates for their male and female employees across the whole company after a tribunal ruled that Next store staff must be paid the same as warehouse workers, according to a specialist employment lawyer.
Harry Abrams, a partner at JMW Solicitors, said unequal pay between men and women in any department where they are considered to be performing ‘work of an equal value’ could be judged unlawful.
The high street retailer argued that the different pay rates for its warehouse staff was due to market forces and that the difficulties in recruiting and retaining warehouse workers meant they required higher pay than its shop staff.
But an employment tribunal ruled that Next had failed to show that paying their sales consultants, who were overwhelmingly women, less than their warehouse operatives, was not sex discrimination.
The decision could cost Next more than £30m in back pay.
Abrams said men and women must get equal pay and companies could be flouting UK pay laws if they were performing work of an equal value – even if that work involved doing very different jobs.
He said the landmark ruling meant operators should review their own pay rates and not just in the warehouse Employers should conduct an equal pay audit or a more comprehensive job evaluation scheme, he added, which would ensure that all those within a salary band who are rated as equivalent are paid the same.
