THOUSANDS of shop workers at Next have suffered a major blow in their long-running fight for equal pay, after a tribunal sided with the high street giant.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has overturned a key part of a landmark ruling from 2024, which had found Next was wrong to pay warehouse staff more than shop floor workers for jobs of equal value.
More than 3,500 current and former employees, most of them women, had been set to share a payout worth more than £30million after winning their case following a six-year legal fight.
But Next has now won its appeal, with the tribunal accepting the retailer was justified in paying warehouse operatives higher basic wages than sales consultants because of recruitment and retention pressures in the warehouse jobs market.
This means the retailer can continue to pay warehouse staff, who are mostly men, more than shop workers, who are mostly women, even though both jobs have already been ruled to be of equal value.
Elizabeth George, a partner at law firm Leigh Day which represents the shop workers, said: “The Appeal Tribunal’s conclusion on basic pay is disappointing.”
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She confirmed the firm now intends to challenge the decision further.
Ms George added: “Next pays market rates in both its stores and its warehouses in order to recruit and retain staff.
“The market rate is higher in the predominantly male warehouse labour market, even though the work carried out in stores has already been found to be equal work.”
It is not a total defeat for the shop workers, however, as the tribunal upheld other parts of the original ruling.
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Judges backed the workers’ claims relating to night-time premiums, overtime pay and paid rest breaks, according to Leigh Day.
Next has said it plans to appeal against some of these remaining elements of the case.
Crucially, both the original Employment Tribunal in 2024 and the latest Appeal Tribunal ruling found there was no direct sex discrimination involved in how Next sets its pay rates.
The case is one of a number of similar equal pay battles being fought against major UK retailers, including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and the Co-op, with Leigh Day representing more than 100,000 shop staff across the sector.
The rulings hinge on whether companies can justify paying warehouse staff more than shop staff by pointing to market pressures, even when the roles are deemed to be of equal value under the law.