Tesco appeals equal pay ruling to the Court of Appeal

Tesco, the supermarket chain, appeared in court last week to appeal a ruling on a dispute over equal pay that has been ongoing for four billion pounds.

The case was launched by Harcus Parker & Leigh Day in 2018. It focuses on three tranches, which are mostly women, of around 49,000 former and current store workers.

They claim that for equal work, they are paid less as compared to the male-dominated staff of distribution centres. So far, none of the claims have been proven.

The case was already heard by several employment tribunals, including an appeal tribunal in the first half of this year. The tribunal ruled that it should have allowed the retailer to present expert economic evidence that market forces are responsible for the pay gap.

This appeal relates to a hearing on equal value that was held in tranche one. This appeal is for three job roles where the work done by two sample claimants in each role and eight comparator have been taken into consideration.

Tesco has now appealed to the Court of Appeal. Its legal team claims that previous tribunal decisions misunderstood their case.

The court is asked to examine where the appellant at the Employment Appeal Tribunal identifies alleged legal errors in its grounds for appeal and whether this illustrates these errors by referencing certain specific findings within a judgment under appeal.

The appeal will ask whether the appeal’s scope is limited to certain findings.

Parties will appear in front of the justices during a day-long hearing. The parties will appear before the justices for a one-day hearing.

Tesco was asked for a comment before publication.

Alex Elliott, solicitor at Birketts in the employment department, stated: “This case is about the principle that women and men should be paid equally for doing the same work. The Equality Act aims to achieve this goal by including a clause on sex-equality in every employment contract. This clause gives employees of one gender the same benefits as employees of the other sex, such as pay.

The same work can be considered equal even if the roles are different, based on factors such as the amount of effort, skill, and decision making involved.

The material factor defence is available to employers if they can demonstrate that any differences were attributable to an actual material factor, which was neither directly nor indirect discriminatory based on sex. For example, location or skills shortages, or differences in work hours.

Benefits, rewards and compensation opportunities

Browse Comp and Benefits Jobs