Another ‘Equal Pay’ Legal Win That Undermines British Business
An ‘equal pay’ claim brought by 3,500 shop assistants at Next has succeeded after an employment tribunal decided that their work was “of equal value” to that of (mostly male) warehouse workers. It’s a dark day for British business, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
Who would bother to create jobs in modern Britain? Clothing retailer Next has done plenty of job-creation over the past few years – only to be whacked by an equal pay claim brought by 3,500 shop assistants. An employment tribunal has ruled that the company was wrong to pay them less than it paid staff at its warehouses. With back pay it could cost the company £30 million.
Equal pay is one thing where it concerns men and women working alongside each other in the same jobs. It is quite another when it is extended to the concept of “work of equal value”, as it was in this case. The tribunal ruled that Next failed to show that paying its shop workers, who are overwhelmingly women, lower pay rates than its warehouse workers, who are mostly men, was not sex discrimination. There is no suggestion, by the way, that the company is discriminating against women by refusing to employ them in its warehouses – any female shop assistants who feel underpaid are quite free to apply for a job there, where they will be paid the same as male warehouse workers.
It doesn’t take too much imagination to see how destructive this area of employment law could turn out to be. The Next case is similar to the equal pay claim which brought Birmingham City Council to its knees, leading to bankruptcy and council tax bills being jacked up by 21% over the next couple of years. There, the issue was with cleaners, whose work was deemed to be of ‘equal value’ to that of refuse collectors. Henceforth, all employers – whether in the public or private sector – are going to have to second-guess what an employment tribunal would make of the various occupations on its pay roll.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I think the work of whoever sits on this Employment Tribunal is of f*** all value. They can probably afford to pay extra at Next, or buy clothes from more expensive shops when Next goes out of business.
Doncha just love socialism!
Stretched to the extreme it could be argued that without the most lowly graded employees the higher grades would not have jobs and so every position within a company is of equal value and should be paid the same.
Indeed. That’s the direction we are headed. Lamebrained utopianists – utopia being achieved with someone else’s money.
It smacks of the US concept of “disparate impact” where for example if you have a test for firefighters and some arbitrary category such as “black people” do less well than others you have to change the test until that’s no longer the case- “racism” or “discrimination” don’t need to be proved.
Also notice that these people don’t cut their own pay (they should be paid less than lollipop ladies) – just increase other people’s with other people’s money
A surgeon with 30+ years experience can’t operate without loads of nurses, cleaners, porters etc working in the hospital so following the logic of the tribunal their work is of equal value and they should be on a six figure salary.
👍 😀 😀 😀
Sounds more like communism to me. Everybody getting paid the same no matter their job, except party members of course
Indeed
Whatever you call it, it will make most people poorer
The best evidence for the disproportion of pay to effort (worth) is applications from lower earners to higher paid jobs.
As the report says, there hasn’t been much of that.
The tribunal panel should be sent on an al expenses paid sabbatical to North Korea to see “equality” in action
And when the cost of labour exceeds its worth, businesses adjust by automation, moving to places of lower labour costs, change operating procedures requiring fewer people – enter bankruptcy.
There is a lot of short-term thinkers about, and the mistaken belief that employers are blocks of wood incapable of agency and push-back.
Lets see how long Next will last.
The shop workers get their pay rise and backdated payments. And then lose their jobs.
😀 😀 😀
Replace them with robots.
Unfortunately that mostly applies to warehouses.
Service jobs are most difficult to automate, but not impossible if the incentive is right.
In the US fast-food restos (after big minimum wage increases in some States) are reducing staff numbers by installing computer consoles at tables so diners order direct without need of a waiter to take their order.
Far East – waiters are being replaced by robots to deliver food to tables.
Not if Next dissolve the company first to avoid this ludicrous ruling, and a phoenix company maybe named Previously or Subsequently rises up and cuts the warehouse staff pay to the retail staff level..that would work, wouldn’t it. 🤨
Good idea.
Or, make the sales assistants work in the warehouses and warehouse workers in the shops.
Ergo, all employees should be on the same wage as the ceo, Equal value!
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-curse-of-feminism-and-how-to-fight-it/
Ross Clark is right to point out these important differences in types of work.
It seems to me that it’s just women happy to have the men do all the heavy lifting, while the women take the physically easier jobs, but demand equal pay.
It is unfair, and illustrates feminist hypocrisy.
But that doesn’t go for nurses and carers, who in my view have one of the most difficult, demanding, unpleasant and lowest-paid jobs in the world. They really are compassionate angels, most of them.
Off-T
Have a look at this two minute vid from “Parliamentarian.”
These civil servants are truly on another planet. Unbelievable.
https://youtu.be/_Un6XtZjpAY?si=Gziy4YxmCeH4-mYu
Unbelievable….
in the meantime I feel like a sitting duck, waiting to be shot by tax bullets…
…”tax bullets.”
I share your concern. I have a feeling that the budget Bliar has handed to Kneel is beyond all of our worst imaginings.
Simple solution: new contracts that allow all equally paid workers to be deployed to either the warehouse or the shop.
Transfer the women to the warehouse so they can do “work of equal value”.
“With back pay it could cost the company £30 million.” And add £millions to the future payroll expense . And who pays the payroll expense? Three groups: consumers in raised prices, shareholders in reduced dividends, employees via reduce the headcount, wage freeze, reduce other benefits, reduce hiring. Since management’s fiduciary duty is to maximise shareholder value, and market conditions may not allow price increases, it’s the workers who will bear the brunt. If you have to pay male rates, hire males. Reduce overall shop assistants, make those remaining work harder. Equal value. In the matter of public health, bin-lorry workers’ work is of equal value to doctors. In fact it is of higher value, because without bin lorry workers, as garbage will be left uncollected, the negative effects on public health would very quickly manifest with vermin, epidemics, plagues, etc. No doctors would not even in the long term have the same detrimental effects. Adam Smith pointed out that all wages are the same. Contrast what an individual has to do to become a doctor with what he would have to do to empty bins. If we want doctors we have to compensate them more than bin-lorry workers. If we… Read more »