Next Pay Ruling

[tomus42]

Working in a warehouse and working in a shop are surely completely different jobs. Why should the pay rates be expected to be the same?

BBC News - 'We did it!' Next shop workers win equal pay claim
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0817jd9dqo

[newmodarmy]

Deemed equal value.

Although you could argue the shop staff could have applied for warehouse roles if the pay was better

[newmodarmy]

It's not the first time such judgments have been made

[THECORBYLOON]

From Acas, "Some jobs can be classed as equal work, even if the roles seem different. For example, a clerical job and a warehouse job might be classed as equal work."

That appears to be the same approach in this case.

[Sam1960]

Asda staff won a supreme court ruling three and a half years ago. Nothing has changed, and probably never will.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56534988

[New Judge]

"It's not the first time such judgments have been made"

Indeed. This may well have been the one which kicked it off:

https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-guidance/case-studies/how-fords-striking-women-drove-equal-pay-act#:~:text=And%20it%20was%20a%20long,male%20workers%2016%20years%20later.

[tomus42]

'Value' is surely about supply and demand. If Next finds it needs to pay more to get people to work in the warehouse, but shop workers are easy to find, aren't the warehouse jobs more valuable?

[jno]

maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it appears they've been justifying a gender pay difference by claiming it's a job difference? There's more than a hint of bad faith in that line of argument; while the jobs may be different, I can't see that they're obviously unequal.

[johnk]

Dealing with the public is far more difficult than working in a warehouse, the shop staff should get more.

[rowanwitch]

Having sat on a few job assessment panels the NHS ( Agenda for change.) it's simply a matter of working to a score sheet...using a number of criteria... 

In a retail environment

One might be... Work is physically demanding moving heavy objects for much of the day.  5 point

Work might be moderately demanding moving some heavy objects  requiring long periods standing 3 point

Work has low physical demands requiring the employee being seated for much of the working day... 1 point

Another criterion could be

The role requires frequent contact with members of the public who may be angry,rude, or have significant barriers to communication.   5 points

The role involves significant contact with members of the public in a routine manner e.g managing simple transactions 3 points

The role requires minimal contact with the public 1 point

 

There would probably be criteria for operating dangerous equipment and cash handling as well as health and safety, staff supervision, and others relevant to the organisation   so it's easy to see how the roles could both score in the range for a particular pay band. Even though the points were scored in different areas.

 

[New Judge]

"maybe I'm reading this wrong, but it appears they've been justifying a gender pay difference by claiming it's a job difference? There's more than a hint of bad faith in that line of argument; while the jobs may be different, I can't see that they're obviously unequal."

By that reasoning the shop floor staff and warehouse people should receive the same pay as the CEO.

I think the thrust of the argument was that retail staff are predominantly women whilst warehouse staff are predominantly men. Warehouse staff receive more pay than retail staff. The warped logic that follows from that is that is that men receive better pay than women. 

In my view that's a false argument because there is nothing to stop men applying for retail jobs or to stop women applying for warehouse jobs. 

It is impossible to make an "equal value" argument unless you are going to argue that since all employees contribute to a company's success, all jobs in that organisation are of equal value (see my opening paragraph). Such an argument also fails to recognise the need to pay more to recruit and retain staff in certain roles.