Supermarket pay case involving borough workers moves forward

A hearing began on Monday in the case between Tesco staff, including at least 37 in Wigan and Leigh, and the retail giant.
A hearing is being held in a pay dispute involving staff at TescoA hearing is being held in a pay dispute involving staff at Tesco
A hearing is being held in a pay dispute involving staff at Tesco

Claimants, represented by law firms Leigh Day and Harcus Sinclair, are alleging they have been under-paid for working in shop floor roles compared to their colleagues in distribution centres.

It is one of a number of very similar cases being brought against five big supermarkets.

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The latest stage of the proceedings against Tesco is a tribunal looking at the robustness of a job evaluation study.

The claimants and their legal representatives allege Tesco commissioned the document in 2014 and found 22 in-store roles were equivalent to higher-paid distribution centre jobs.

They then claim the existence of the study was hidden from staff.

However, the legal firm says Tesco now appears to be trying to downplay the contents of the document and the method used in it.

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Leigh Day believes the average shop floor worker could be entitled to £10,000 or more in back pay over a period of six years.

The law firm says there is also a gender element to the dispute as the majority of in-store workers are female while most distribution centre jobs are performed by men.

Lara Kennedy, a solicitor in the employment team at Leigh Day, said: “This is a highly-unusual scenario where Tesco is now backpedalling and criticising its own study.

“Having looked at the legislation and carefully analysed the case law, we believe the 2014 study, designed, developed and scored by Tesco’s own reward managers, to be a job evaluation study that can be relied upon by its store workers.

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“We argue that the only reason shop floor workers have not been paid equally is because, despite their own study telling them otherwise, Tesco see the work done in stores, typically by women, as lesser in value than that done in distribution centres by their mostly male colleagues.”

A verdict from the latest Tesco hearing could be delivered soon after October 14, though Leigh Day says it could also take until December.

The massive equal pay case against Asda, which involves 587 employees from the borough, went before the Supreme Court in July and a decision on the evidence heard is now being awaited.

The Equal Pay Now case for Tesco employees involves 3,500 workers across the country.