Next faces £30m equal pay claim from shop-floor workers

More than 300 Next employees are claiming up to £30m in total in back pay from the clothing retail over the thousands of female staff they say are paid less than male counterparts.

The 300 employees filed a claim at conciliation service Acas the day before International Women's Day on Thursday. The claim states that female workers are paid £7.50 an hour, or an average £2 an hour less than male warehouse workers.

Affected employees could receive an average payback of £6,000 and it’s expected 3,000-5,000 workers will join the claim. In total, 30,000 of 45,000 Next workers are shop-floor staff.

The Acas conciliation service is dealing with similar claims against Asda and Sainsbury’s, with a potential claim against Tesco could see the supermarket giant face up to £4bn in back pay.

A survey earlier this year, found women in Britain are being short-changed by £138bn per year when their earnings are compared to those of their male counterparts. Data compiled by the Young Women's Trust found that men working full-time were on average earning £39,003 a year, compared to women's average wage of £29,891.

Elizabeth George, head of employment at lawyer Pattinson Brewer, acting for the Next claimants, said that the Next case is “another classic example of historical discrimination that has never been corrected”.

“Shop-floor work was always perceived as women’s work and so thought to be worth less than work in the warehouses which was traditionally perceived as men’s work,” she said.

“It is open to Next to approach these claims differently from say, Asda. They can spend months (possibly years) fighting the claims or they can take a radically different and progressive approach and work with us to put this problem right.”

Next responded saying it was unaware that these claims had been made in the first place. The company also claimed that the difference of working at a warehouse and at the store is significant.

“Next values all its employees, regardless of their gender, role and place of work within the business. Next is also confident that all its employees are paid legally, fairly and appropriately for the jobs they perform.”

Next stocks are down 0.12% at the time of writing to 4,836p.

EasyJet's new chief executive, Johan Lundgren, in January volunteered to take a pay cut to match that of his predecessor as the budget airline highlights its commitment to equal pay and equal opportunity for women and men.

Lundgren was initially offered a starting annual salary of £740,000 by the board, which will be reduced to £706,000 to match what was earned by Carolyn McCall when she left EasyJet for ITV. The Swede asked the board to make the change to show his personal commitment to equal pay.