Equal Pay Ruling: Thousands Of Next Retail Workers Win Equal Pay Claim

An employment tribunal has recently ruled that over 3,500 retail workers should not have been paid at lower rates of salary than warehouse operatives engaged by British retailer Next.

The retailer's store workers, who are predominantly women, had successfully shown their work was of equal value to the work performed by the warehouse staff, over half of whom are men.

The basis for bringing an equal pay claim

If an employee and the person they are comparing themselves to of the opposite sex (comparator) perform equal work, an equality clause is implied into the employee's contract. The effect of the implied equality clause is that the employee's contract is to be treated as equivalent to the comparator's contract.