Next wins key appeal to overturn £30m equal pay ruling
A judge ruled Next can pay warehouse workers more because it is harder to recruit and retain them.
Next wins key appeal to overturn £30m equal pay ruling
Next has won an appeal that lets it continue paying warehouse workers a higher hourly rate than shop floor staff in a long-running equal pay dispute.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has overturned a central part of a landmark 2024 ruling that said the retailer was wrong to pay warehouse staff higher basic pay than shop floor workers for jobs of equal value.
More than 3,500 current and former employees, mostly women, had been due to share potentially more than £30m in back pay as a result of that ruling.
Following Next's appeal, the law firm Leigh Day, which represents store workers, called the outcome on basic pay "disappointing" and said it will appeal the decision.
The tribunal accepted that Next was justified in paying higher rates because of recruitment and retention pressures for warehouse workers.
Next described the ruling as a "landmark victory" after succeeding on the "key issue of basic pay".
In a statement, it said: "The importance of this decision is that the Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that it was justifiable for Next to rely on market forces to distinguish between different groups of employees, where there was a good rationale to pay one group more than the other.
"In this case, Next had to pay a higher market rate to warehouse operatives because of recruitment and retention pressures, which did not apply to the workforce in its stores. Next believes this element of the judgment is not only correct in law, but also a victory for common sense.
"The judgment 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."
Leigh Day said judges did uphold 2024 findings on night-time premiums, overtime premiums and paid rest breaks.
Next said it will now seek permission to appeal those decisions.
Both the original Employment Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunal found there was no direct sex discrimination in Next's pay rates. Shop floor staff are predominantly women while warehouse workers are predominantly male.