Asda has lost its appeal over an equal pay claim that has been brought by thousands of its staff.
The claim centres on whether workers in Asda’s stores, who are mainly female, could compare themselves to men who worked in Asda’s distribution centres.
The supermarket giant argued that a comparison could not be made because different departments ran each part of the organisation and there were different methods of setting pay.
Ruling in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Mr Justice Kerr said he agreed with the outcome from the employment tribunal in October 2016, that shop workers could compare themselves to distribution centre workers.
‘I find no lack of rationality or perversity in the judge’s reasoning […] the judge’s overall conclusion that the terms were common in the statutory sense is not impeachable,’ he stated.
Chris Benson, Head of the Employment and Discrimination Department at Leigh Day, the law firm that has brought the case in conjunction with the union GMB, said that Asda continued to appeal every point, rather than focusing on paying men and women equally.
‘Judges at every level have been adamant that the claims can continue,’ he said. ‘After yet another defeat, we hope that Asda take this opportunity to reflect on the merits of the claims, and concentrate on why they pay men more than women for jobs of equal value, rather than trying to stop the claims going ahead at all.’
An Asda spokesperson said that it continues to strongly dispute the claims and that it was disappointed with the appeal ruling which relates to a ‘technical preliminary issue’.
“The employment tribunal has yet to consider whether the jobs are of equal value in terms of their demands and if some jobs are, only then will the tribunal move on to consider the reasons for the differentials, including the existence of different market rates in different industry sectors,’ said an Asda spokesperson.
‘At Asda, hourly paid colleagues doing the same job in the same location are paid the same. Men and women doing the same job in our retail stores are paid the same.
Men and women doing the same job in our distribution centres are paid the same. Pay rates in stores differ from pay rates in distribution centres for legitimate reasons, including the different market rates for different jobs in different sectors.’
Asda has been given permission to appeal against this judgment to the Court of Appeal.
