Retail giant Next has won an equal pay appeal allowing it to pay warehouse workers more than shop-floor staff, warning that its defeat “would have represented a hammer blow to retail employment in the UK”.
The FTSE 100 retailer told shareholders on Monday that it was justified in paying its warehouse operatives a higher rate after the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled in its favour, citing recruitment and retention pressures that do not apply to sales workers.
In August 2024, more than 3,500 current and former Next staff won a six-year legal fight against the retailer after a damning ruling by the Employment Tribunal had failed to show that paying its sales consultants, most of whom are women, lower hourly pay rates than staff in its warehouses, which are male-dominated, was not sex discrimination. Law firm Leigh Day, acting for the claimants, stated that Next could be forced to pay out as much as £30m.
The retailer said the EAT ruled that it is legally justifiable for Next to pay warehouse operatives a higher basic rate than store assistants and it dismissed the claimants’ cross-appeal on this issue.
Next told shareholders the successful appeal “affirms a principle at the heart of any effective employment market – that employers must be able to pay what is necessary to recruit the people they need; and that doing so does not oblige them to raise the pay of other employees where there is no reason to do so.”
“This judgment has come at the right time, the UK economy desperately needs jobs and the loss of this appeal would have represented a hammer blow to retail employment in the UK,” the group added.
