Morrisons workers take equal pay claim to the next level

Morrisons workers who are fighting for equal pay in the shops have now reached a new step in their legal proceedings following a judgment of an employment tribunal.

Morrisons distribution centre employees, who are predominantly male, claim equal pay for equal work.

Leeds Employment Tribunal held the last of three Equal Value Stage 2 hearings in relation job descriptions in November and December 2020. They were asked to decide what information should be included in job descriptions for four female shop employees and one male comparison working in a distribution centre.

The job descriptions that were finalised by this latest judgment are part of an assessment of seven claimant roles, and six comparator roles.

These detailed documents will be used by independent experts to perform a scoring exercise on the retail and distribution roles that the tribunal will take into consideration when deciding whether or not the hourly-paid retail store roles have the same value as the hourly-paid distribution centre roles.

The job descriptions for the female workers represent a large group of more than 7,500 shop employees represented by Leigh Day.

The Equality Act 2010 states that even though work may not be the same and is not rated equivalent, the demands placed on it are equal when considering factors like effort, skill, and decision-making. Morrisons’ claimants received a better outcome in some of the most critical aspects of their job roles. These included customer service, judgment and experience.

Experts will examine and report how the jobs compare based on elements such as knowledge and experience, responsibility for planning and maintaining stock, looking after finances, health and safety and data handling. They will also look at the stress, difficulty of the work, concentration required, physical abilities, communication skills, and the working conditions.

Emma Satyamurti is a partner at Leigh Day and co-head of employment. She said that the new judgment was a “critical move forward” in the quest for pay equality among Morrisons store workers. This judgment demonstrates the dedication of our clients in ensuring that their contributions are properly valued, especially when compared with their counterparts who work in distribution roles.

Leigh Day represents many of the workers who are involved.

Satyamurti said: “Ensuring the job descriptions have been written accurately and comprehensively is an important part of the process for equal pay. The independent experts will have the tools to assess the roles and examine key factors like responsibility, skills, and working conditions.

She stated that the decision of the tribunal brought the workers “one step closer” to receiving the “recognition, fairness and justice they deserve for their vital work”.

Morrisons argued previously that the tribunal could not compare the retail staff with the workers in the Morrisons distribution centres because each Morrisons centre had its own collectively negotiated terms and conditions.

The company argued that distribution centre workers’ employment conditions were not the same across all sites and therefore retail workers couldn’t be compared to them.

The same source also claimed that individual agreements on terms meant that retail and distribution workers were not employed at the same time.

Asda Tesco Next and other UK retailers are facing similar claims.

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