Walmart’s Asda comes to UK top court in equal-pay fight

Bloomberg

A long-awaited equal pay lawsuit at the UK Supreme Court could see thousands of mostly female workers obtain better wages from the largest supermarkets and end up costing the chains as much as 8 billion pounds ($10.1 billion).
The Supreme Court was expected to scrutinise a discrimination case brought by more than 15,000 employees who work at Walmart’s Asda stores. The group contends that they should be paid the same as workers in the company’s warehouses, who are predominantly men.
The case could redefine how work is valued for women at supermarkets across the country with similar suits pending against J Sainsbury, Tesco, Wm Morrison Supermarkets and Co-Operative Group.
The total value of the claims is around 8 billion pounds, according to lawyers at Leigh Day, who act for the workers.
Asda has insisted that its hourly pay is the same for male and female workers and that disparities only arise because the work is different in warehouses than in the stores.
The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has put renewed pressure on equality
in the labour market. But British firms have made mixed progress to narrow the pay gap since the government forced companies to disclose wage data in 2018. On average, men make about 14% more than women.
Michael Newman, a lawyer at Leigh Day, said Covid-19 should be focussing everyone on the importance of key workers, who work in stores every day.
“Why are we valuing one set more than another?,” Newman said. “The job hasn’t changed, we’ve just woken up to their importance.”
The grocer appealed the case to the Supreme Court after losing in a lower tribunal, which ruled that it was fair to compare the different jobs.