header-logo header-logo

Where Next for equal pay?

20 September 2024 / Charles Pigott
Issue: 8086 / Categories: Features , Employment , Equality , Discrimination
printer mail-detail
189732
The ruling in the group action against the retailer paves the way for more claimants in the retail sector & beyond, writes Charles Pigott
  • Last month’s employment tribunal decision in the Next equal pay litigation is the first substantive ruling to emerge from six separate group actions being brought against national retailers, including Asda and Tesco.

After years of interlocutory hearings, it had been established that the work done by predominantly female store workers was of equal value to that done by their comparators, who worked in Next’s warehouses where a majority of the workers are male. The final stage was reached earlier this year, when a 15-day hearing took place to hear Next’s material factor defence in relation to 17 groups of terms. The reserved decision has now been published (Thandi and others v Next Retail Ltd and Next Distribution Ltd Leeds ET 1302019/18 and others). There are now over 3,500 claimants in this group action.

Next has indicated that it intends to appeal.

The material factor defence

It

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve reports on Haynes v Thomson, the first judicial application of the Supreme Court’s For Women Scotland ruling in a discrimination claim, in this week's NLJ
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
back-to-top-scroll