Asda faces possible £100m back-pay bill for female workers

Asda’s workers have made progress towards its pay fight against the firm, which could lead to the largest private sector claim for equal pay in the UK at £100m.

Law firm Leigh Day is representing 7,000 women who claim they have been paid less than others in the company despite doing work of the same value.

The employment judge ruled that women working for Asda’s distribution centres can compare themselves to higher paid men.

Majority of the staff involved in the case are paid by the hour for in-store work and go back as far as 2002.

Lauren Lougheed, a lawyer representing the women, said: "Asda tried to argue that because the shops and distribution centres were in different locations, with different pay arrangements, that Asda could pay the men what they like. However, the employment tribunal found that Asda, the employer of both men and women, could have made sure that there was equal pay between men and women if they wanted to, but chose not to.”

According to Lougheed, the judgment will have far-reaching implications on other supermarket equal pay claims including another case they are currently working on with around 400 Sainsbury's workers in a similar situation.

Asda responded: "We continue to strongly dispute the claims being made against us. We believe that the demands of the jobs are very different and are considering our options for appeal. At Asda, hourly-paid colleagues doing the same job in the same location are paid the same. Pay rates in stores differ from pay rates in distribution centres for legitimate reasons, including the different market rates for different jobs in different sectors."