More than 40,000 Asda workers have won the latest leg of their equal pay claim with bosses through a Supreme Court ruling, paving the way for a legal battle that could last years.

The UK’s highest court backed a Court of Appeal judgment that store staff are entitled to compare themselves to distribution staff for equal pay purposes.

The store workers, mostly women and members of the GMB union, have brought equal pay claims on the grounds that those in the supermarket chain’s warehouses, mostly men, unfairly get more money.

Law firm Leigh Day, which is representing them, says distribution depot workers get between £1.50 and £3 an hour more and that the issue has far wider implications across the economy.

The case, which stems from a 2016 employment tribunal decision on pay going back to 2002, pre-dates the £6.8bn sale of Asda by US grocery giant Walmart to a consortium earlier this year.

Bosses have long argued that store jobs are not comparable to distribution centre roles.

Lawyers say the next stage of their fight will involve a further employment tribunal case to seek whether specific store and distribution jobs are of “equal value”.

It could then, potentially, ask a tribunal to consider whether there are reasons other than gender for why people working in stores should not get the same pay rates as people working in warehouses.

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