Tesco 'facing record £4bn equal pay claim' over pay of shop assistants versus warehouse workers

Shop assistants who are mostly female claim they are paid up to £3 an hour less than male warehouse workers
Leigh Day has launched legal action against Tesco on behalf of shop assistants
REUTERS
Chloe Chaplain7 February 2018

Supermarket giant Tesco is facing Britain's largest ever equal pay challenge with a bill potentially running to £4 billion, a law firm claims.

Leigh Day has launched legal action against the company on behalf of shop assistants who claim they are paid up to £3 an hour less than their male warehouse workers.

It said distribution centre workers - who are predominantly male - earn in excess of £11 an hour, compared to the largely female-staffed Tesco stores where the common grade sits at £8 an hour.

The disparity could see a male distribution worker earning £5,000 more a year than a female worker doing the same hours, Leigh Day said.

Tesco said they work hard to ensure all staff are paid "fairly and equally".

Paula Lee, from Leigh Day, who is representing the Tesco women, said: "We believe an inherent bias has allowed store workers to be underpaid for many years.

"In terms of equal worth to the company there really should be no argument that workers in stores, compared to those working in distribution centres, contribute at least equal value to the vast profits made by Tesco, which last year had group sales of £49.9bn.

"In the week where we have marked the 100-year anniversary since women began to get the vote, the time has come for companies and public organisations to have a long hard look at themselves, to see the inequality which is still deeply entrenched in their organisations."

The claims have been submitted to conciliation body Acas and it follows similar claims against Asda and Sainsbury's which are currently being dealt with by the employment tribunal process.

A Tesco spokesman said: "We are unable to comment on a claim that we have not received.

"Tesco has always been a place for people to get on in their career, regardless of their gender, background or education, and we work hard to make sure all our colleagues are paid fairly and equally for the jobs they do."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in