Thousands of Next workers have won an equal pay claim against their employer.

An employment tribunal said the mostly female sales consultant floor staff should not be paid less than warehouse staff, the majority of whom are male.

It’s the result of a more than six-year legal battle involving 3,540 claimants working at the high street giant.

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To defeat the claim Next had to prove there was a difference in wages because of a “material factor” unrelated to sex discrimination but it failed to do so.

How did Next justify the pay difference?

The company said the pay difference between the roles was because the going “market rate” for a sales consultant was different to a warehouse operator. This had to be observed to ensure the viability of the business, it said.

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The tribunal accepted the difference was Next attempting to cut costs and increase profit and said it was not “direct discrimination”.

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But that argument was not enough.

The business need was not so large as to overcome the discriminatory effect of lower basic pay, the tribunal said.

“There must usually be a more compelling business reason for such arrangements to be justifiable”.

Next said it will appeal the ruling.

A legal first for ‘undervalued’ workers

The firm representing the workers Leigh Day said it was the first successful equal pay claim of its type against a national retailer.

Customer service was “demanding” and often “undervalued”, said one of the three lead claimants Helen Scarsbrook who worked for more than 20 years at Next.

“Anyone who works in retail knows that it is a physically and emotionally tough job,” she said.

“Customer service, in particular, is very demanding and we do that in addition to lots of other essential tasks that go to make Next a successful business. You become so used to having your work undervalued that you can easily start to doubt it yourself.”

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Next’s response

Responding to the ruling Next said: “The tribunal rejected the majority of the claims made by the claimants, in particular all claims of direct discrimination, and all aspects of the claims made in respect of bonus pay.

“The tribunal expressed serious criticisms of the claimants’ expert evidence and overwhelmingly accepted the evidence of Next’s expert and fact witnesses.”

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More claims to come

More claims are to come as Leigh Day said it represents more than 112,000 staff working for Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Co-op bringing “similar equal pay claims”, the firm said.

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