Lisa Bryson, Partner, Employment & Immigration at Eversheds Sutherland, Belfast
Reacting to today’s Supreme Court ruling on equal pay in favour of Asda employees, Lisa Bryson, Partner, Employment & Immigration at Eversheds Sutherland, Belfast, said:
“This is a significant ruling which will potentially have a much wider impact on the retail sector and supermarket employees. While the Supreme Court’s ruling does not give these workers the automatic right to equal pay, it gives them the right to pursue an equal pay claim.
“This is a major step forward for the equality of pay across different classes of retail workers but, crucially, has a significant gender dimension. The majority of these 44,000 claimants in this case were women working in Asda stores and shops while those earning more money were mainly men in the warehouse. This ruling therefore may have serious and wide-ranging implications for other large retailers and supermarkets who maintain that their retail, distribution and warehouse departments are separate sectors within the same business with unique pay and staff structures.
“This ruling is not the final step in the legal journey but, rather, it is likely to set off years of litigation and lengthy legal battles between employers and employees.”