More than 3,500 current and former employees at Next at have won the final stage of a six-year legal battle over equal pay.
An employment tribunal ruled that Next’s store staff, who are more than 80% women, should not have been paid at lower rates than its warehouse workers.
Lawyers for the shop staff hailed the judgement as “hugely significant” and the amount of back-pay owed to the claimants could amount to more than £30m.
However, Next said it would appeal against the ruling.
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The fashion retailer argued that pay rates for warehouse workers were higher than for retail workers in the wider labour market, justifying the different rates at the company.
But the employment tribunal rejected that argument as a justification for the pay difference.
Next said in a statement to the BBC: “This is the first equal pay group action in the private sector to reach a decision at tribunal level and raises a number of important points of legal principle.”
The retailer emphasised that no cases alleging direct discrimination against female employees were upheld and that the tribunal found “there was no conscious or sub-conscious gender influence in the way Next set pay rates”.
Elizabeth George, barrister and partner at the law firm Leigh Day representing the workers, said the ruling would come as a “huge encouragement” to workers in other sectors pursuing equal pay claims.
She said: “Retail isn’t the only sector where you have jobs that are divided along clear gender lines and you see the male-dominated market is attracting a higher rate than the female-dominated roles.”
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