Supermarkets and Equal Pay
Everyone likes to be able to say "I told you so" once in a while, so here's an interesting report from the BBC's business editor, Kamal Ahmed, which highlights the issue of equal pay in the supermarket sector.
Which I wrote about months ago, of course.
Asda faces mass legal action over equal pay for women
Asda, the UK's second largest retailer, is facing a mass legal action by women who work in their stores.
The women claim they are not paid the same as male workers in the distribution warehouses - despite their jobs being of "equivalent value".
The case will test how retailers decide what they pay their staff in different parts of their business.
And if the women are successful it could have serious ramifications for the whole sector.
The legal action, believed to be the largest of its kind in the private sector, could lead to some very high payouts.
I have been told that more than 10,000 Asda staff have expressed an interest in joining the case which is being taken by the solicitors, Leigh Day.
Big difference
More than 1,000 employment tribunal claims have already been lodged.
Interestingly, many of these tribunal cases are actually being taken by men who are Asda shop workers. They would also see a pay rise if the legal action taken on behalf of women under equal pay legislation is successful.
Asda has signalled it will fight the claims vigorously and says it does not discriminate.
Lauren Loughheed, the solicitor with Leigh Day who is leading the case, said that the pay difference between shop and warehouse workers could be as much as £4 an hour.
That's a big difference when you are earning £7 an hour. And, if the cases are successful, women workers could be compensated for six years of back pay.
One Asda store worker I spoke to said that the work was the same whether you were in the shop or in the warehouse - packing and unpacking pallets of clothes and food and putting stock on shelves, often through the night.
She said she should be paid the same as the men working in the warehouse.
More than 1,000 employment tribunal claims have already been lodged.
Interestingly, many of these tribunal cases are actually being taken by men who are Asda shop workers. They would also see a pay rise if the legal action taken on behalf of women under equal pay legislation is successful.
Asda has signalled it will fight the claims vigorously and says it does not discriminate.
Lauren Loughheed, the solicitor with Leigh Day who is leading the case, said that the pay difference between shop and warehouse workers could be as much as £4 an hour.
That's a big difference when you are earning £7 an hour. And, if the cases are successful, women workers could be compensated for six years of back pay.
One Asda store worker I spoke to said that the work was the same whether you were in the shop or in the warehouse - packing and unpacking pallets of clothes and food and putting stock on shelves, often through the night.
She said she should be paid the same as the men working in the warehouse.
'We do not discriminate'
Asda says it has strong policies on treating all its staff equally. Sources argued that the work in the distribution warehouses was harder physically as well as often being outside.
An Asda spokesperson said: "A firm of no win, no fee lawyers are hoping to challenge our award-winning reputation as an equal opportunities employer. We do not discriminate and are very proud of our record in this area which, if it comes to it, we will robustly defend."
The cases, which are likely to be heard next year, go to the heart of the problem of equal pay.
In the public sector, the issue has led to major battles between councils and their workers. Women who worked as cleaners and school catering staff have taken hundreds of class actions to close pay differentials with men who had jobs such as refuse collector or street cleaner.
One council, Birmingham, has agreed to pay over £1bn to settle the claims of tens of thousands of women which go back over many years.
Ms Lougheed said that the private sector had been slower to act and that this test case could prove a watershed.
Asda says it has strong policies on treating all its staff equally. Sources argued that the work in the distribution warehouses was harder physically as well as often being outside.
An Asda spokesperson said: "A firm of no win, no fee lawyers are hoping to challenge our award-winning reputation as an equal opportunities employer. We do not discriminate and are very proud of our record in this area which, if it comes to it, we will robustly defend."
The cases, which are likely to be heard next year, go to the heart of the problem of equal pay.
In the public sector, the issue has led to major battles between councils and their workers. Women who worked as cleaners and school catering staff have taken hundreds of class actions to close pay differentials with men who had jobs such as refuse collector or street cleaner.
One council, Birmingham, has agreed to pay over £1bn to settle the claims of tens of thousands of women which go back over many years.
Ms Lougheed said that the private sector had been slower to act and that this test case could prove a watershed.
Unskilled labour
In fact, it could be the "Made in Dagenham" case for the 21st century.
If you remember, Made in Dagenham was the film about the 1968 legal battle waged at Ford's east London car plant.
TESCO workers are the latest group to get in touch regarding holiday back pay which is not surprising because I wrote about the potential for claims amongst supermarket staff a few weeks ago.
As everyone knows, supermarkets are open all hours these days and staff work a range of shits, including night shifts in some stores, and there's lots of weekend and overtime working as well.
And it's not just the checkout workers who are likely to be involved because there's an army of other workers behind the scenes such as the drivers involved in making deliveries to big distribution centres and all the other people who help move TESCO products on to the supermarkets and smaller local stores.
So things are beginning to take off in a big way and I imagine it can only be a matter of time before words spreads to other rival oragnisations including:
ASDA
SAINSBURYS
MORRISONS
WAITROSE
LIDL
ALDI
Here's a simple test to help discover if you have a holiday backpay claim.
The fight for equal pay seems to be entering new territory, if this article in The Guardian is anything to go by, with another front opening up against the country's big supermarkets where the largely female store-based staff are paid much less, apparently, than the largely male workforce which dominates in distribution centres.
Now it's not an area I've been involved in so far although I can see that the issues might well be the same and it's interesting to note that a law firm, Leigh Day, appears to be leading the charge - and not the country's trade unions.
I must keep an eye on developments.
Supermarket staff could win millions in equal pay cases
Test cases being brought by 400 workers against Asda in a major test of equal job evaluation in the private sector
Caroline Davies and Sarah Butler - The Guardian
The test case is being brought against Asda, but Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis could face similar claims. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe / Rex Features
Supermarkets may have to pay millions of pounds in higher wages and back pay to store staff, mainly women, if test cases for equal pay being brought by 400 workers are successful.
The claims, being brought against Asda, are a major test of equal job evaluation in the private sector. They are being pursued by the employment lawyers who two years ago won a landmark £1bn supreme court ruling for lower-paid women employed by Birmingham city council.
If pay discrepancies in equal value jobs can be proved, other supermarkets and retailers, such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, could face similar claims. The Asda cases will determine if the supermarket's store staff jobs, which are mainly held by female workers, are of equal value to higher-paid jobs in the company's male-dominated distribution centres. If they win, workers could be entitled to six years' back pay for the difference in earnings.
"The implications for any supermarket are enormous," said Michael Newman of Leigh Day, the legal firm representing the workers. The cases are possible because Asda, which employs 172,000 staff, owns and operates its own distribution warehouses.
If the legal action succeeds, other supermarkets who also own their distribution centres may face similar claims. Most retailers own some of their distribution centres and lease others and use a mix of directly employed and third-party staff.
Morrisons directly employs nearly three-quarters of staff in its distribution network. Tesco says it directly employs the majority of such staff even though it leases most of its distribution centres.
Sainsbury's refused to comment on the employment status of its distribution staff but said it owned most of the facilities they work in. John Lewis directly employs 3,500 staff in its distribution network, the vast majority of such workers, while Marks & Spencer employs just a fifth of its staff directly.
While retailers would not comment on the pay and conditions of their staff, industry insiders said it was difficult to compare jobs in warehouses directly with those in stores. Those stacking goods in distribution centres tend to be paid more than shopfloor staff, but some retailers said this was justified by the uncomfortable conditions, additional skills and unsocial working hours involved.
Until now equal job evaluation has mainly affected local councils, where jobs are assessed and given pay grades. Birmingham alone has so far paid around half of its £1.1bn bill for the back pay settlements to the women – including cleaners, cooks, care workers and school lunch supervisors – who were denied bonuses and attendance allowances given to male road cleaners and refuse collectors.
The Asda parity issue is expected to be heard within the next two months at Manchester employment tribunal. Newman said Leigh Day was representing 414 store staff, most though not all women.
"In the supermarkets check-out staff and shelf-stackers are mostly women. The people in the warehouses are pretty much all men. And, who would be surprised, the group that is mostly men gets paid more," he said. "We are very confident that the jobs are pretty much the same. In the warehouses they take stuff off the shelves, put it on a pallet and stick it on a lorry. In the supermarket, they do the reverse: take the pallets off the lorry, unstack them and put stuff on the shelves."
Asda said in a statement: "We are aware of a small number of claims. We pay a fair market rate for the job people do regardless of gender and we don't recognise discrimination in our business."
Victory would mark a significant step in the battle for equal pay, said Newman. "There has been huge advancement in the public sector. But in the private sector it is still the 1970s. Job evaluations don't happen. Cases aren't brought. So you still get this very segregated workplace. Women are over here doing the women's work and men are over there doing men's work."
The precedent for equal pay claims for comparable jobs was set in 1997 when 1,500 Cleveland dinner ladies won a £5m payout.
A national single status agreement was drawn up the same year giving local authorities 10 years to introduce fair and non-discriminatory grading structures. Tens of thousands of mainly female workers in such jobs, however, are still awaiting settlements for back pay. The general and public service unions GMB and Unison said they had 40,000 outstanding cases across the UK, including in Birmingham.
The latest figures from the Local Government Association show that in 2013, 57 councils still had to complete equal pay reviews, and 17 were experiencing problems that were delaying their work, including reaching agreements with unions on job evaluation and pay line modelling.
Birmingham, the largest local authority, recently put the National Exhibition Centre up for sale for a reported £300m. The council, which settled 11,000 cases in October, with thousands more continuing, insists the sale is not just to fund equal pay, but also other capital programme expenses and the NEC required major investment that it could not provide.
Brian Strutton, the GMB's national secretary for public services, said he had no sympathy for the council, but enormous sympathy for the women forced to wait while the council "salami-sliced" and dragged out proceedings, with some claims taking 10 years.
"It must have cost tens of millions of pounds in legal expenses, and thousands of women who work for them and used to work for them have been waiting a long time for their settlements," he said. "It is all money that is unequivocally owed to women who could have done with that money in their pay packets at the proper time." He called on the government to "get a grip on the tribunal system".
Ben Patrick, legal officer for Unison, said allowing single groups as one representative claim could speed up cases that routinely take up to 10 years.
Statistics show 37,400 equal pay cases were brought in 2009-10, 34,600 in 2010-11 and 28,800 in 2011-12.
The 2012 supreme court hearing in effect extended the time limit for equal pay claims to be brought from six months to six years after leaving employment. It was described by Leigh Day at the time as the biggest change to equal pay legislation since its introduction in 1970.
In fact, it could be the "Made in Dagenham" case for the 21st century.
If you remember, Made in Dagenham was the film about the 1968 legal battle waged at Ford's east London car plant.
Women workers at Ford's Dagenham plant fought for equal pay and found a sympathetic ear in Barbara Castle
Women who undertook the tough work of stitching the car covers for the Cortinas and Zephyrs that rolled off the production line wondered why they were considered "unskilled labour" while men in the factory were considered to have more skilled jobs and were therefore paid more.
The women, led by Eileen Pullen, Vera Sime, Gwen Davis and Sheila Douglass, took action and sparked the process that led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970.
There are some rather nice interviews with the cast of the film that you can watch here.
Women who undertook the tough work of stitching the car covers for the Cortinas and Zephyrs that rolled off the production line wondered why they were considered "unskilled labour" while men in the factory were considered to have more skilled jobs and were therefore paid more.
The women, led by Eileen Pullen, Vera Sime, Gwen Davis and Sheila Douglass, took action and sparked the process that led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970.
There are some rather nice interviews with the cast of the film that you can watch here.
Equal value
Despite the women's victory, the gender pay gap is still a problem. Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed that in 2013 there was a 19.7% gap between the earnings of men and women, as measured by hourly earnings for all employees.
Gloria de Piero, the shadow women's minister, wants to see action. She said that all companies above 250 employees should be obliged to undertake an equal pay audit that would be published in the company's annual report.
But many businesses are concerned by new regulations which would mean extra costs.
It is also often difficult to compare what people earn if they undertake work which is very different. And comparing hourly rates is very different from comparing the pay of salaried staff.
Under equality law, pay should be the same for employment of equal value.
That can often be a matter of judgement. And, as in this case, that is where the battle lies
Despite the women's victory, the gender pay gap is still a problem. Latest figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed that in 2013 there was a 19.7% gap between the earnings of men and women, as measured by hourly earnings for all employees.
Gloria de Piero, the shadow women's minister, wants to see action. She said that all companies above 250 employees should be obliged to undertake an equal pay audit that would be published in the company's annual report.
But many businesses are concerned by new regulations which would mean extra costs.
It is also often difficult to compare what people earn if they undertake work which is very different. And comparing hourly rates is very different from comparing the pay of salaried staff.
Under equality law, pay should be the same for employment of equal value.
That can often be a matter of judgement. And, as in this case, that is where the battle lies
TESCO Workers (14 October 2014)
TESCO workers are the latest group to get in touch regarding holiday back pay which is not surprising because I wrote about the potential for claims amongst supermarket staff a few weeks ago.
As everyone knows, supermarkets are open all hours these days and staff work a range of shits, including night shifts in some stores, and there's lots of weekend and overtime working as well.
And it's not just the checkout workers who are likely to be involved because there's an army of other workers behind the scenes such as the drivers involved in making deliveries to big distribution centres and all the other people who help move TESCO products on to the supermarkets and smaller local stores.
So things are beginning to take off in a big way and I imagine it can only be a matter of time before words spreads to other rival oragnisations including:
ASDA
SAINSBURYS
MORRISONS
WAITROSE
LIDL
ALDI
Simple HBPC Test
Here's a simple test to help discover if you have a holiday backpay claim.
- Take your entire wages for 3 months without holiday pay and divide by 3 to give you your average pay for those 3 months.
- Then compare this average pay with your pay in the month you were on paid leave.
- If your holiday pay is less than your average pay, then it is less then it is highly likely you have a claim.
If in doubt make a claim.
If you don’t make a claim you won’t get paid anything - as many people found out to their cost over equal pay.
If you the sums don't work out for you, then pass the word on to your friends, family members and colleagues as they may have a claim, especially if they work shifts or regular overtime.
If you would like a claim form please visit http://www.holidaybackpayclaims.co.uk and fill in the ‘New Claim Pack’ request form.
Or contact HOLIDAY BACK PAY CLAIMS LIMITED on the following numbers: 0800 024 6888or 0141 343 8066
Or contact HOLIDAY BACK PAY CLAIMS LIMITED on the following numbers: 0800 024 6888or 0141 343 8066
Breaking New Ground (23 April 2014)
The fight for equal pay seems to be entering new territory, if this article in The Guardian is anything to go by, with another front opening up against the country's big supermarkets where the largely female store-based staff are paid much less, apparently, than the largely male workforce which dominates in distribution centres.
Now it's not an area I've been involved in so far although I can see that the issues might well be the same and it's interesting to note that a law firm, Leigh Day, appears to be leading the charge - and not the country's trade unions.
I must keep an eye on developments.
Supermarket staff could win millions in equal pay cases
Test cases being brought by 400 workers against Asda in a major test of equal job evaluation in the private sector
Caroline Davies and Sarah Butler - The Guardian
The test case is being brought against Asda, but Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis could face similar claims. Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe / Rex Features
Supermarkets may have to pay millions of pounds in higher wages and back pay to store staff, mainly women, if test cases for equal pay being brought by 400 workers are successful.
The claims, being brought against Asda, are a major test of equal job evaluation in the private sector. They are being pursued by the employment lawyers who two years ago won a landmark £1bn supreme court ruling for lower-paid women employed by Birmingham city council.
If pay discrepancies in equal value jobs can be proved, other supermarkets and retailers, such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, could face similar claims. The Asda cases will determine if the supermarket's store staff jobs, which are mainly held by female workers, are of equal value to higher-paid jobs in the company's male-dominated distribution centres. If they win, workers could be entitled to six years' back pay for the difference in earnings.
"The implications for any supermarket are enormous," said Michael Newman of Leigh Day, the legal firm representing the workers. The cases are possible because Asda, which employs 172,000 staff, owns and operates its own distribution warehouses.
If the legal action succeeds, other supermarkets who also own their distribution centres may face similar claims. Most retailers own some of their distribution centres and lease others and use a mix of directly employed and third-party staff.
Morrisons directly employs nearly three-quarters of staff in its distribution network. Tesco says it directly employs the majority of such staff even though it leases most of its distribution centres.
Sainsbury's refused to comment on the employment status of its distribution staff but said it owned most of the facilities they work in. John Lewis directly employs 3,500 staff in its distribution network, the vast majority of such workers, while Marks & Spencer employs just a fifth of its staff directly.
While retailers would not comment on the pay and conditions of their staff, industry insiders said it was difficult to compare jobs in warehouses directly with those in stores. Those stacking goods in distribution centres tend to be paid more than shopfloor staff, but some retailers said this was justified by the uncomfortable conditions, additional skills and unsocial working hours involved.
Until now equal job evaluation has mainly affected local councils, where jobs are assessed and given pay grades. Birmingham alone has so far paid around half of its £1.1bn bill for the back pay settlements to the women – including cleaners, cooks, care workers and school lunch supervisors – who were denied bonuses and attendance allowances given to male road cleaners and refuse collectors.
The Asda parity issue is expected to be heard within the next two months at Manchester employment tribunal. Newman said Leigh Day was representing 414 store staff, most though not all women.
"In the supermarkets check-out staff and shelf-stackers are mostly women. The people in the warehouses are pretty much all men. And, who would be surprised, the group that is mostly men gets paid more," he said. "We are very confident that the jobs are pretty much the same. In the warehouses they take stuff off the shelves, put it on a pallet and stick it on a lorry. In the supermarket, they do the reverse: take the pallets off the lorry, unstack them and put stuff on the shelves."
Asda said in a statement: "We are aware of a small number of claims. We pay a fair market rate for the job people do regardless of gender and we don't recognise discrimination in our business."
Victory would mark a significant step in the battle for equal pay, said Newman. "There has been huge advancement in the public sector. But in the private sector it is still the 1970s. Job evaluations don't happen. Cases aren't brought. So you still get this very segregated workplace. Women are over here doing the women's work and men are over there doing men's work."
The precedent for equal pay claims for comparable jobs was set in 1997 when 1,500 Cleveland dinner ladies won a £5m payout.
A national single status agreement was drawn up the same year giving local authorities 10 years to introduce fair and non-discriminatory grading structures. Tens of thousands of mainly female workers in such jobs, however, are still awaiting settlements for back pay. The general and public service unions GMB and Unison said they had 40,000 outstanding cases across the UK, including in Birmingham.
The latest figures from the Local Government Association show that in 2013, 57 councils still had to complete equal pay reviews, and 17 were experiencing problems that were delaying their work, including reaching agreements with unions on job evaluation and pay line modelling.
Birmingham, the largest local authority, recently put the National Exhibition Centre up for sale for a reported £300m. The council, which settled 11,000 cases in October, with thousands more continuing, insists the sale is not just to fund equal pay, but also other capital programme expenses and the NEC required major investment that it could not provide.
Brian Strutton, the GMB's national secretary for public services, said he had no sympathy for the council, but enormous sympathy for the women forced to wait while the council "salami-sliced" and dragged out proceedings, with some claims taking 10 years.
"It must have cost tens of millions of pounds in legal expenses, and thousands of women who work for them and used to work for them have been waiting a long time for their settlements," he said. "It is all money that is unequivocally owed to women who could have done with that money in their pay packets at the proper time." He called on the government to "get a grip on the tribunal system".
Ben Patrick, legal officer for Unison, said allowing single groups as one representative claim could speed up cases that routinely take up to 10 years.
Statistics show 37,400 equal pay cases were brought in 2009-10, 34,600 in 2010-11 and 28,800 in 2011-12.
The 2012 supreme court hearing in effect extended the time limit for equal pay claims to be brought from six months to six years after leaving employment. It was described by Leigh Day at the time as the biggest change to equal pay legislation since its introduction in 1970.
