Tesco and Morrisons have entered significant stages of their long‑standing equal pay battles, with tribunals this week examining why pay gaps emerged between male and female staff.
Morrisons’ latest hearing began earlier this week in Leeds, while Tesco’s case will be considered in Reading from today (1 May) until mid‑June.
Both retailers are required to present their material factor defence, setting out why women working in stores were paid less than men in distribution and warehouse roles. Law firm Leigh Day, which represents thousands of claimants, maintains that no legitimate explanation exists for the disparity.
Late last year, Morrisons attended hearings focused on comparing the duties of female shop workers with those of male distribution employees.
The Tesco claim is far larger, involving more than 60,000 workers overall, with Leigh Day acting for around 17,000 of them. The firm is also representing over 9,000 Morrisons employees. Tesco staff previously secured the right to pursue equal pay under European Union (EU) law in 2021, when the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union applies directly in equal value cases.
Paula Lee, employment partner at Leigh Day, said: “These hearings are a defining moment in the equal pay claims against Tesco.” She added that, after years of legal argument, the employer must now justify why “thousands of predominantly female store workers continue to be paid less than their counterparts in distribution roles”.
She noted that the supermarkets are expected to rely heavily on market rates, though lawyers will question whether those rates were shaped in ways that undervalued women’s work.
Emma Satyamurti, partner at Leigh Day, who represents Morrisons workers, said: “It is not enough to point to historic or market-based reasons if those factors, ultimately, perpetuate inequality. The outcome will be hugely important not just for Morrisons workers, but for retail employees across the UK.”
A Tesco spokesperson added: “The jobs in our stores and distribution centres are different. These roles require different skills and demands which lead to variations in pay, but this has absolutely nothing to do with gender. We reward our employees fairly for the jobs they do and work collaboratively with our colleagues and our unions to ensure that the pay and benefits we offer are fair, competitive and sustainable. We continue to strongly defend these claims.”
This article is based on a piece written for Personnel Today
