'How long do we have to wait?': Equal pay legal challenge against Asda reaches court after 10 years
The GMB union has said if Asda loses the case, they could end up paying out £1.2 billion, as ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana reports
A legal challenge against one of Britain’s biggest supermarkets that has rumbled on for 10 years finally reaches court today, as more than 60,000 Asda workers accuse the company of sex discrimination.
The case against Asda, which claims that the jobs of mainly women working on the shop floor are unfairly underpaid compared to predominantly male warehouse workers, could have huge implications for the entire retail sector.
The GMB union claimed that if Asda loses the equal pay case, the supermarket giant could be looking at historic payments worth £1.2bn as well as an increased annual pay bill of £400m.
It comes after an email leaked to ITV News revealed that an independent expert, who was commissioned by the court to compare the store workers’ jobs to those in the distribution centres, had concluded that the women’s roles were of equal value.
The findings, revealed in an email sent by lawyers Leigh Day to tens of thousands of claimants, appeared to be a major boost for the shop floor workers.
The case is being heard at the Manchester Employment Tribunal, with arguments being made by Asda and the claimants until November 22. A decision is likely to be made in January.
It comes after the retailer Next lost a similar case, where 3,540 workers accused it of paying shop workers less than distribution workers.
Although the tribunal did not find direct discrimination, it judged that the company had failed to show that lower pay rates were not the result of gender-based discrimination.
Nadine Houghton, GMB National Officer, said: “Asda workers had had to fight for ten years, with bosses fighting them every step of the way, just to get to today’s hearing. They will not give up now.”
She argued that “the entire retail sector has been built on the structural undervaluing of women’s work".
She said that if the court finds the jobs are of equal value then Asda’s majority owners - TDR Capital - should get around the table for settlement talks.
"The new owners have loaded billions of pounds of debt onto ASDA's balance sheet - yet last year they reported a pre-tax profit of £180m," Houghton said.
"TDR Capital was founded by now billionaire, Manjit Dale - there is enough money to pay these women what they are owed."
Susan Brierly, 69, left her home in Oldham early this morning to be at the court.
She worked at Asda for 46 years and has been a claimant for some years.
“It’s been a long time waiting, it could’ve been resolved,” she said, as she got ready to head out.
“Every time we go to court they just appeal so it drags on years and years. How long do we have to wait? People are dying (while they wait for the outcome)."
Shop floor jobs include checkout operators, customer service workers and those unloading products and bringing them into the stores.
An Asda spokesperson said: “We fully respect the right of current and former colleagues to bring this case, however, we strongly reject any claim that Asda’s pay rates are influenced by gender. There are numerous different jobs within retail and within warehouses.
“We continue to defend these claims because retail and distribution are two different industry sectors that have their own distinct skill sets and pay structures.”
The company has pointed out that there are men who work on the shop floor and women in the warehouses.
In fact, around 30% of claimants are male but the case is based on equal pay claims because the shop floor workforce is predominantly female and the warehouses are predominantly male.
The lawyers will argue that Asda has undervalued the skills on the shop floor, in comparison to more physical skills, but Asda workers have also told ITV News that they unload the products and so are carrying out physical work similar to in the distribution centres.
Jackie Sloan, from near Poole, told ITV News last year, that equal pay laws came into play in 1975, when she was 15.
“Here I am, 63 years old, and I’m still not getting equal pay, I’m still getting treated like a second-class citizen. I’m still having to fight for my right as a woman, and that’s not fair," she said.
Michelle Hunt, from North Yorkshire, said she felt "anger and frustration” when she found out about the pay differences.
She said: "Because, as a female why should my work value be any less than my male counterparts? I can’t even afford to shop at the place I work. I have to go to budget retailers and shop there."
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Asda has argued that the warehouse workers operate high-reach trucks and can work in a chilled/frozen environment.
The supermarket has made clear that if the tribunal does find that jobs are of equal values they still have another avenue to argue.
They will argue that other reasons justify the pay differentials, such as market conditions. However, Next lost at this stage of their case.
A message leaked to ITV News suggested an independent expert had compared the jobs of mainly women working on the shop floor to their predominantly male colleagues in distribution centres - scoring them across 11 factors including knowledge and responsibility.
The email claimed that the shop floor roles included in the study scored slightly higher on average, with 453 points, than those in the distribution centre, on 447
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