The shopworkers, who are mostly women, say Tesco pays them up to £3 per hour less than warehouse staff, who are mostly men. The decision, Tesco Stores [2021] EUECJ C-624/19, comes three months after the Supreme Court held 40,000 Asda shopfloor workers could compare their roles to colleagues in distribution centres (Asda Stores v Brierley [2021] UKSC 10), and could result in £2.5bn in backdated pay claims.
Kiran Daurka, partner at Leigh Day, which acted for 50,000 Tesco workers, said: ‘For a long time, employers have argued that UK law in this area is unclear, but this judgment is simple, if there is a single body responsible for ensuring equality, the roles are comparable.
‘Clarification from the ECJ confirms that this single source test can be relied upon by people in the UK bringing an equal value claim. This means that employers can no longer hide behind the grey areas of UK law. It’s time for supermarkets to accept that the roles of shop floor workers and distribution centre workers are comparable.’
The UK has chosen to retain EU employment equality laws post-Brexit.
Camilla Beamish, legal director at Cripps Pemberton Greenish, said: ‘The workers relied on the “single source” principle, whereby it could be shown that the inequality in pay was attributable to a single source, in this case the Board of Tesco.
‘The Court dismissed Tesco’s argument that the EU principle defining equal pay for equal work or work of equal value was not applicable here and their argument that the roles required “different skills and demands”. This judgment leaves little uncertainty and demonstrates the Court’s firm hand with regard to equal pay claims.
‘Despite Tesco remaining adamant that they remunerate their staff fairly, the impact of this ruling will now make it even harder for businesses to justify paying their female and male staff differing rates for work of equal value. In addition, given the overwhelmingly high profile of both Asda and Tesco, it is hoped that these recent judgments will set a precedent for other private sector businesses and encourage them to urgently review their remuneration structures and equality policies.’
